Always
by AerinM
Summary: A collection of inter-connected one-shots that take place after the end of Book 5. Lots of Bracken/Kendra fluff. Other characters are involved as well, of course.
1. Embarrassment

Note: Cover art was drawn by FairyKam in relation to chapter 12 of this story. Thank you so much! :)

Each chapter will be a different one-shot (with possibly occasional exceptions that may take more than one chapter to get through). Happy readings, I hope you enjoy! This first chapter starts off immediately after the end of book 5.

Disclaimer: This will serve for all chapters in this story. Brandon Mull owns Fablehaven. Since my name is definitely not Brandon Mull, that means I don't own the series and am just a fan with some ideas.

* * *

**Chapter 1: Embarrassment**

Kendra was flushed, distracted and quite obviously floating on Cloud Nine as she walked through the forest back to her grandparents' house after seeing Bracken off at the shrine to the Fairy Queen. She felt lighter than air and energized enough to run across a thousand football fields in tiny circles. To say that she was elated would be a gross underestimate of how she really felt – joyful, amazed, giddy with excitement… Words didn't really do her justice at the moment.

The fairies stared at her as she passed by, some gaping, some gawking, others giggling behind their hands. Kendra didn't even notice them due to her deep daydreaming state; one fairy with short, spiky blond hair and an intricate lacy-looking short yellow dress with white trim fell victim to Kendra's blissful ignorance and was knocked off of the flower she had been sitting on as Kendra quickly strolled – or was it _skipped?_ – by in her daze.

"Uh… whoa. Are you okay?" a voice interrupted Kendra's thought processes. Seth. Surprisingly, she had apparently made it all the way to the yard without realizing it before her brother had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Kendra snapped out of it. Partly, at least. "I'm great!" she said, probably a little more emphatically than necessary.

Seth's eyebrow raised. "Obviously. What happened to you? You weren't even like this after we saved the world." His tone of voice was cautiously curious, as though he wasn't sure he really wanted to know what was going on with his sister.

A little more pink flowed to her cheeks. "I… Nothing. It's nothing," she managed to reply, completely unconvincingly. Seth couldn't help it; his curiosity had officially been piqued.

"Then what's with the goofy grin on your face? It's like you're having three of the best Christmases ever, and all at the same time!"

"Don't worry about it." She grasped at any ideas that entered her head to come up with a reasonable excuse. "I'm just happy that everything has worked out! The world is safe, Mom and Dad are here, the garden is beautiful and the sun is shining!" She started walking toward the house quickly in hopes of getting rid of him. A few more steps brought her to the back door; as soon as she walked through the door however, Seth ran up and all but shouted, "What, did Bracken finally kiss you or something?"

Kendra froze, her face a deep red now. Who better to witness this exchange than her Grandma Sorenson, Grandpa Larsen… and Dad, who were all sitting at the kitchen table?

Once Seth entered the house after Kendra and saw everyone staring at them, he clapped a hand over his mouth. Sure, he liked to tease his sister as much as any younger brother would, but he didn't mean to embarrass her in front of the rest of the family. Well… at least not yet, anyway. He didn't know enough details, although he had an idea that he might have hit the nail directly on the head, judging by the fact Kendra's face resembled a tomato in color and she wasn't making eye contact with anyone.

The three adults stared at Seth and Kendra for a moment as a silence fell over the kitchen. Grandma Sorenson coughed and moved her coffee cup to the sink, and then Grandpa Larsen stood and said, "I think I heard my wife calling me just now." He walked out of the room after smiling and winking at Kendra, whose face miraculously turned an even darker shade of red. Seth saw Dad's expression, recognized one of those "special" talks coming on, then immediately turned around and high-tailed it back out into the yard before he could even potentially be called back to participate in that.

* * *

After what had to have been one of the most awkward conversations with her father that she'd ever had, Kendra had walked straight to the attic and the room she shared with Seth. Due to his sudden escape to the yard twenty minutes earlier, the room was thankfully empty. She ran to her bed and dove face-first into her pillow, smiling like a crazy person with no conscience. Despite what Dad had said, she was embarrassingly happy and she intended to stay that way for a little while longer. At least long enough for her to relive the events – _that_ event – of the day about a hundred more times.

'He kissed me,' she thought over and over again, barely able to keep herself from bursting into what she used to call "ridiculously girly giggles." After telling her that he had every intention to visit often and basically see where things went with their relationship, he told her she was beautiful and then… he kissed her. Sort of. It was a quick peck on the cheek close to the corner of her mouth, but to Kendra it was the _perfect_ first kiss. He picked her up immediately following, spun her around with a glorious smile on his face, embraced her tightly and let her go.

"I'll see you again soon," he promised, grinning from ear to ear and sounding as energized as she suddenly felt. "Nothing could keep me away for long."

All Kendra could manage to do at that moment was stare at him with a matching smile painted across her face; her heart, along with her arms and legs, felt like it was melting. She wouldn't have been surprised if she found she had turned into a puddle of goo in front of him.

He seemed even happier by her speechless reaction. "Kendra," he said, taking her by the hand, "I need to go. But I mean every word I've said." He started to walk away from her, then suddenly turned on the spot and placed another kiss on the back of the hand of hers that he still held. With one last smile, he let go and he ran for the Fairy Queen's shrine.

Kendra walked off of the gazebo and all but collapsed onto the lawn, her brain buzzing with excitement. After an undetermined amount of time while she stared at the white, fluffy clouds in the brilliantly blue sky, she finally stood back up and headed for the house feeling lighter than air.

Yeah, even Dad's awful "boy talk" couldn't ruin her day.


	2. Competition

Thank you for the positive feedback. :) I appreciate it! I have a few chapters already handwritten out, so once I type them up I'll have some more to post. Here's one.

If you want to leave me a word or two as prompts for me to base future chapters off of, I'll mention your name if I choose your suggestion. Just singular words, or short phrases, or some random sentence you'd like one of the characters to say will work. No guarantees that I will use your suggestions, but if it will work with the major points I want to touch on then I probably will. I plan to start aging Kendra and Seth starting shortly after this chapter takes place. I'm toying with a few ideas.

Anyway… here's the second installment. I hope you enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 2: Competition**

"Aww… Come on!" Seth loudly complained. "I've got to beat you at least once at _something!_"

Bracken smiled smugly. "No, you really don't," he said.

"Seriously, you always win! Give somebody else a chance, will you?"

"You want a pity victory? That's not much to brag about," Bracken pointed out. Then he shrugged. "Being locked up in a dungeon for countless years certainly gives you a LOT of time to refine your skills at games. Well… when they were available, anyway."

Seth frowned – how could he ever compete with that!? – then he suddenly brightened as "The Idea" popped into his brain. A light bulb almost visibly turned on over Seth's head and a mischievous smile began to sneak its way across his features. "I know something I can crush you at," he said slowly.

"Oh yeah?" Bracken's curiosity was piqued. "Bring it on," he challenged.

Seth leapt up from the floor where they had been playing some old version of Risk. A chess board and all of the corresponding pieces lay scattered around, as well as a deck of cards and a very worn-out set of Chinese Checkers. From the looks of the mess of games in the living room, they'd been at this for hours.

Rushing over to the cabinet beneath the television, Seth pulled open a drawer and removed what appeared to Bracken to be an oddly shaped piece of black plastic attached to some black cords with tri-colored tips that presumably plugged into something, along with two other even more oddly shaped pieces of plastic that were much smaller than the first and identical to each other. Colored buttons adorned the two plastic things that matched, as well as a couple of moving pieces that looked like they swiveled around.

"This," said Seth dramatically as he held up the largest piece, "is a Nintendo 64. Yes, there are definitely more recent video game systems, but this is the one we have. It's still in great condition." He passed one of the smaller plastic pieces with buttons to Bracken and kept the other one.

"Seth-" Bracken began, but was cut off.

"That is your controller. How about we start with a racing game?" Seth chose a game and placed it into the console.

"Seth-"

"This is the button you press to step on the gas. This one is your brake, but if you're going to beat me then you'll never touch it." Seth then showed Bracken how to steer. "Tutorial complete," he said after a minute. Then, with a sly grin and a twinkle in his eye he added, "Are you ready to die?"

Bracken gave up trying to say whatever he had wanted to originally and smiled. "Challenge accepted, but you're the one who's going to lose."

"I have played this game for hours. There's no way you're going to defeat me!"

They selected their cars and Bracken watched the screen as the vehicles lined up at the beginning of the race. "Why are there more cars than just the two of ours?" he asked.

"The other ones are computer controlled," Seth said. "We're playing against each other and fake people."

"Gotcha." Lights on the screen were flashing red as the actual room Seth and Bracken occupied lit up tremendously, although Seth didn't react at all. Bracken heard the soft footsteps he'd recognize anywhere, and sure enough Kendra walked up from behind them. Seth didn't appear to notice as Kendra quietly sat next to and slightly behind Bracken, on the opposite side as her brother. She put her finger to her lips and reached for the controller in Bracken's hand. Bracken, ever the gentleman, obliged to her silent request. Just as the light on the screen turned green, Kendra pressed the gas button and started racing her brother.

It was clear almost right away that she was better at this than Seth was, although the two were close. Bracken chuckled at Seth's frustrated sounds and Kendra's silent expertise. She kept taking the lead, slowing down just enough to let Seth pass her slightly so he could run into some trap or other that she'd set up for him, then she'd speed ahead again. Seth hadn't caught on that she was playing instead of Bracken until she passed the finish line with a very good lead over Seth and the computer players.

"What?! How is that possible?!" Seth exclaimed as Kendra gave Bracken a high-five and they both started laughing. Seth looked at them, realized Kendra had been the one to compete against and said, "Oh, ha ha. Very funny." Directing his comments toward Bracken, Seth continued, "I can't believe you needed my _sister_ to help you win!"

"I never raced you – that was all Kendra. So technically, she didn't help me. She did it all on her own."

Seth's face flushed.

"Oh come on," Kendra began, cutting off any response Seth had been formulating. "It wouldn't have been fair otherwise. At least Bracken chose games you both were familiar with! You picked something he's never even seen before."

"He's had _years_ of practice with everything else and I haven't! How is _that_ fair?!"

"Are you really letting some stupid games bother you?"

"They're not stupid, they're awesome! At least they would be if I'd just _win_!"

"Guys!" Bracken said loudly, catching the siblings' attention. They both looked at him with the same questioning expression and suddenly he could see the family resemblance they shared. Temporarily distracted by this, he said, "You two have very similar facial features, you know?"

Seth scoffed. "I don't believe this guy!" he shouted, throwing his hands in the air. "First he asks for help from my _sister_ to beat me, and then he says I look like a _girl_!" Kendra started to laugh, which annoyed Seth even more. "It's not funny!" he declared, although there was perhaps a tiny smidge of slight amusement in his eyes.

"Please calm down, Seth," Bracken began, "I didn't mean it as an insult. At any rate, what I had originally wanted to ask was… Can three people play this game?"

Seth's temper toned down to a slightly less frustrated level as Kendra responded, still smiling from laughter, "Yes. Up to four players at a time. Why? Do you want to try it?" The boys could have sworn they heard a lilt of teasing in her question.

Bracken smiled at the slightly competitive hint she was sending him. "I'd like to try," he said. "The game looks like it could be fun."

"Alright," Kendra shrugged, her tone changing to one of warning as she looked at her brother. "Go easy on him, Seth."

"No way," Seth replied, producing another controller from the drawer and handing it to Bracken. "You're player three by the way," he said as he again reminded Bracken which button was the gas and which was the brake.

The trio sat down on the floor in the same order as before with Bracken in the middle, all three paying close attention to the television as they chose their racing vehicles. In a couple minutes, their cars were lined up at the black and white checkered banner which marked the beginning of the race. The course itself was fairly simple – a rather large oval designed to look like a standard race track, with grass and sand in the center of the oval. "I'm choosing a beginner course," Kendra had explained. "So you can get used to steering. Stay out of the middle; the sand and grass will slow you way down."

"Stop helping him," Seth muttered while Kendra rolled her eyes.

"I may be going easy on Bracken, but I'm still going to beat you," she said with a matter-of-fact tone to her voice. Bracken grinned at her confidence – he rather liked seeing this side of her.

"Whatever," Seth grumbled as the lights in the game turned from flashing red to a sudden green and all three competitors raced off down the course. Kendra took the lead right away, but what surprised both her and Seth was the fact that Bracken remained even with them. In fact, he was quickly gaining the upper hand over the siblings by hugging the inside of the corners and making sure to hit all of the speed boosts on the straight ways.

"Have you played this before?" Seth asked through gritted teeth after a couple of minutes and several failed attempts to deter Bracken's progress in the game.

"This game? No," Bracken said as he passed the finish line, barely coming in ahead of Kendra who was, in turn, barely ahead of Seth.

A groan of frustration escaped Seth. "How are you so good at this if you've never played it before?!"

"I tried to tell you at the very start," Bracken began to explain calmly. "We did occasionally have a Playstation or X-Box to play while I was imprisoned. It's not that difficult to adapt to an older video gaming system after having played on more recent ones. The controllers and graphics are a little different, but that's about it."

Kendra laughed lightly as Seth purposely smacked his head against the floor. "In that case, you're on," she challenged Bracken. "We're going for the hard levels. Are you in, Seth?"

With his face still firmly planted into the hardwood floor, Seth responded, "I give up. Just… Aaaaaaaahhhh. Go on without me."

"I think you broke my brother," Kendra said to Bracken, who chuckled.

"Don't take it too hard, Seth," Bracken started, "I'm sure you'll best me at something random one of these days."

A muffled, indistinguishable response was the only sound aside from Kendra's shuffling noises as she re-situated herself next to him. Bracken smiled in contentment. He really felt like he fit right in.


	3. Prank

This chapter was prompted by **MeTheAwesome**. Thanks for the inspiration! ;) You've started a chain of events here.

Again, thank you for the positive feedback. Next chapter I'm planning to be a brief glimpse of Seth's quest (I'm still deciding between whether I should give his quest a funny or serious spin), and then we'll really start getting into a lot of cutesy fluff and more general silliness as the characters grow up a little more.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Prank**

Kendra was sitting on the steps at the shallow end of the pool in the back yard, watching Bracken and Seth play some form of water basketball or other in the deeper section. They had tried to convince her to join them, but she had pointedly refused; she was embarrassed about being in a swimsuit in front of Bracken (not that she would ever admit it verbally). Her body had been changing a lot lately – more quickly in recent weeks than it had been over the past year or so – and while she appreciated some of the growth that was occurring, she was feeling perhaps a little too self-conscious with this much exposure. She wouldn't have even gone into the pool this afternoon if it hadn't been for Bracken's playful eyes and her internal stubborn mantra of 'fake it 'til you make it' where her confidence was concerned.

Besides, she was having a lot of fun observing them. She had to admit, things were never boring when her brother was around, and he and Bracken were almost always a gold mine for amusement and laughter. Smiling was almost completely unavoidable when those two were together.

Bracken. He looked so at ease, so _young_ when he was visiting. It was hard to picture him as older than perhaps eighteen or nineteen; it was even harder to picture him as anything but human. There were the subtle reminders, though – like Grandpa Sorenson having to hurriedly add "unicorns" to the registry of which creatures were allowed in the yard and house while he politely stood beyond the grassy perimeter during his first formal visit. Raxtus had been granted, by Agad, immunity from magical barriers where the preserves were concerned, but apparently Bracken hadn't. He explained that Raxtus was pretty much supposed to act as Agad's eyes and ears around the preserves in order to further prevent the re-opening of Zzyzx, whereas Bracken had made it clear that he didn't want that job. He further explained that he could have attacked the wards with his horn and broken them easily since he wasn't part of the initial treaty, but then he joked that it would probably make a bad second impression on Kendra's family if he sent the preserve swirling into chaos.

She continued thinking about moments where she would catch glimpses of his non-human self when her thoughts suddenly crashed into the present as she realized that a pair of blue eyes were staring straight into her green ones from a distance of only about a foot. Startled, she clutched at her chest and shouted, "You scared me!"

Bracken laughed. "You were staring off into space," he said.

"I guess that makes me a pretty terrible referee, huh?" She joined him in light laughter. "Sorry I wasn't paying attention."

"I'm not bothered by it. What were you thinking about?"

"Oh, just… stuff," she responded vaguely, knowing that wouldn't satisfy his curiosity but hoping he would drop it. Changing the subject she asked, "Where'd Seth go?"

Bracken seemed to understand, didn't pursue his original question and instead explained, "He said he was hungry and went inside to grab a snack. He also said he'd bring us something if we wanted it."

She quirked an eyebrow. "Seth? Volunteering – unprompted – to do something nice? For me of all people? Really?"

"Do you think he's up to something?"

"Of course."

Bracken smiled, and silence fell between the two. After a minute or so, his expression changed and he looked like something was troubling him. He opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but then shut it and shook his head.

"What's wrong? Do I have something on my face?" she joked.

"No no," he began. Then, hesitantly, he continued, "You, um… Your swimsuit is nice. I mean, you look nice. In your swimsuit. Which is… nice..."

Kendra blushed and giggled a little, and Bracken shyly grinned and scratched the back of his head uncomfortably. He was learning to be smoother with his compliments, but sometimes he still acted like the tongue-tied guy she met in prison. "Thank you," Kendra answered sincerely. Suddenly she felt even more self-conscious.

"One of these days, I promise I'll be able to give a compliment without making myself look like a total nincompoop," he laughed. "I'm sorry you get to be my test subject. I really am trying hard to get better at this."

"I think there are much worse things that could happen to me than being on the receiving end of awkward flattery," she stated lightheartedly. She reached out and touched his shoulder tentatively, hoping he could understand that she was not upset but wasn't quite sure how to tell him that his heartfelt words really meant a lot to her.

He apparently either received the memo or was feeling particularly affectionate because the next thing she knew, he had his arms around her in a tight embrace. "I'm really embarrassed," he admitted in her ear. "I'm just very fond of you."

Kendra felt like she was on fire. "Now _you're_ the one embarrassing _me_," she said. Part of her wanted to curl up into a ball and hide her exposed body somewhere far away perhaps under a mountain of blankets where no one would be able to look at her until after she put more clothes on, and the other part of her wanted to pull his face out of her hair and kiss him like crazy. They hadn't shared more than that one perfect, quick peck during his first visit to Fablehaven almost a year ago, after all.

She was definitely not bold enough for option two. At least not today. Option one, however…

Bracken started chuckling and she realized with a gut-wrenching jolt of mortification that he probably just read her thoughts. It's not like she had been trying to suppress them – she was practically shouting them at him while simultaneously forgetting that he could actually hear her when she did that, whether he'd intended to invade her mind or not.

She pushed him away from her and buried her face in her hands, wishing she could disappear.

"It's okay," he began in a soothing voice, "I'm not going to tell anyone."

"It's _you_ I wanted to keep all of that from in the first place!" she almost-wailed miserably.

"I'm sorry," he apologized honestly. "I wasn't trying to pry."

He moved closer to her again and sat beside her on the steps, trying to think of something that would calm her down and yet failing. An intensely awkward silence ensued until Seth showed up with a bowl of orange slices in hand.

"I'm not sure what I missed, but I really don't think I want to know," he stated simply, tone laced with caution. Kendra jumped when she heard his voice; she hadn't noticed he was there. She wasn't sure she'd ever been more thankful to see her brother before. Judging by the way Bracken shifted beside her, he probably felt similarly.

Seth sat down on the edge of the pool, feet dangling in the water, and offered the bowl of fruit to the two of them; they both seemed to leap at the opportunity to busy themselves with something that didn't include talking to each other and grabbed a couple of slices each, stuffing them in their mouths and chewing desperately. Well… Kendra was, anyway; Bracken was a little less obviously desperate in his chewing endeavors.

She swallowed quickly and urgently reached for more, Bracken doing similarly very shortly thereafter. This time, however…

Something was wrong.

Something was very, very wrong.

Kendra spat the semi-chewed orange slice into her hand. "Ugh!" she exclaimed, "What on earth-?!"

Bracken's face paled as he forced himself to swallow, then fell into a coughing fit. "Seth, _seriously_…" he managed to say between gasps of air.

Seth started cracking up. "That couldn't have gone more perfectly!" he cried. He clutched at his chest as his body shook with laughter. "Whatever you guys were talking about before I came back… You didn't even think twice about it…"

"Real mature, Seth! Vinegar? Really?" Kendra shouted. She stood up and walked straight out of the pool, grabbing her towel and wrapping it around her torso, meanwhile dropping her spat out piece of fruit into the bowl with the untouched ones that Seth still held. Her brother made a disgusted sound and gently tossed the plastic bowl to a spot several feet away from him, then resumed laughter.

Bracken was still coughing. Kendra could understand why; Seth had practically drowned the slice she had in vinegar and if Bracken's was the same way, he'd probably still be coughing for a little while longer since he actually swallowed it. Seth's continued guffaws pulled at her last string; she ran up to him and gave him a quick shove, planting him in the water. He shot straight up, spluttering – apparently being under water and laughter did not go hand in hand.

"Whatever," he shrugged it off, a smile returning to his face. "Your guys' reactions were totally worth that."

Kendra met Bracken's eyes and before Seth knew it, Bracken had pushed him back under the water. Seth kicked and squirmed while Bracken held him under with one hand and quickly asked Kendra, "Are we alright?"

She calmed herself down a notch and responded, "Yeah. I'm sorry. Can we just pretend like none of that happened?"

"What happened?" he asked innocently.

"That's perfect."

He grinned in response. Then, remembering that Seth was still underwater, he released his hold and allowed the boy to surface.

Seth sounded like he was going to cough up a lung. "What was _that_?!" he managed after a moment.

"The beginnings of payback," Bracken responded. "You may have won this battle, but _I_ will win the war."

* * *

Sounds like a challenge. I know this prank was a little… basic, simple, whatever… but it's the starting ground I need. Plus, I can picture Seth actually doing something like this just for kicks and giggles.

This chapter was not reviewed my typical zillion times before posting. I apologize in advance for any sentence fluency issues or if my writing seems to be too choppy. I really wanted to get this one up and will fix it if I find issues later.


	4. Trouble

I may eventually write a chapter story dedicated to Seth's quest. The time for that is not now. I am a major "let's work on one project at a time" kind of person. So… we'll see what the future holds. For now, here's a touch of my interpretation of this particular event. I did quote a little of pages 405 and 406 of book 5, _Keys to the Demon Prison_. That part is quite obvious. And I'm sorry, but if you haven't read book 5 then you'll likely be at least partially lost on this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Trouble**

The room was exactly the same as he remembered it – damp, with puddles all over the floor and gross maggot things in each one. A short distance away stood the three women he would recognize anywhere, their arms fused together at the wrists. He approached them confidently, a troll on both sides either to simply escort him or make sure he didn't slaughter the Sisters with the sword.

"Seth Sorenson," Wilna – the fat one – stated as he drew closer.

"I've brought you a wraith," Seth began, motioning to the box he held in his hands, "and Vasilis I will surrender to you."

"Very good," Orna commented happily. Seth remembered that she had been the one who seemed the fondest of him out of the three.

"We thought you might forget your deadline," the tallest one – Berna – said with a frown.

"Of course not," Seth said, unperturbed by the disappointment he heard in her voice. He knew too well what would have happened if he had been late to this particular appointment, and he didn't much treasure the thought of dying from a cursed stab wound. Shrugging off that thought, he asked, "Have you decided on an item you would like me to retrieve for you?"

"Yes," the Sisters responded simultaneously.

They did not clarify so after a minute Seth prompted, "Well… what is it?"

"Now is not the time for your quest," Wilna answered. "We will call on you in the future."

A large question mark seemed to wiggle its way into Seth's brain, and he thought it would be best to stop them in their tracks before this conversation went down in a way he would not be happy with.

"Our deal was that I would return within a year to act as your champion," Seth said sternly, his disapproval made clear. "You are bound by our agreement as well."

The Sisters tittered.

"Such boldness," Berna said.

"He's so like Patton – I wish you would have chosen to be our servant, boy," Orna added.

"You forget your vow," Berna stated. "Shall we refresh your memory?"

"I think I remember pretty well. I've had the threat of 'death-by-ceremonial-knife' hanging over my head for the past year after all," Seth pointed out. "I said I would be back before a year had passed, and here I am."

"You didn't retain everything," Wilna chimed in. She looked at the other two women and after a moment she nodded.

"We will remind you of your promise."

The Sisters tilted their heads back and opened their mouths wide but instead of song like the last time Seth had visited them, he heard other voices echoing all around the cavernous space. He listened to what was being said and quickly understood that this was some kind of replay of the conversation he had with them when the deal had originally been struck.

'_He makes a reasonable bargain,'_ he heard. It seemed as though the voices were directly in his ears at times however, when he turned his head, sure enough there was no one invading his personal space. _'Three gifts: the sword, a wraith, and one of our choosing. Consider the possibilities.'_

'_I am inclined to accept as well. Is it unanimous, sister, or shall we outvote you?'_

'_Very well. We will accept your dubious proposition, upon one condition. You must not divulge the terms of our proposal to anyone, or share the particulars of our other offers.'_

'_Agreed,' _Seth heard his own voice say.

'_Gromlet, bring us a covenant knife.'_

There was a momentary pause and Seth pictured the athame being presented to him by the short troll called Gromlet. He remembered pricking his finger on the blade when he heard the next words, _'Let the knife taste your blood.'_

'_We vow to show you how to find Vasilis. Knife_ _in hand, make your vow!'_

'_I promise to bring you Vasilis within a year after I find it, to bring you a wraith bound to serve you, and to retrieve an additional item for you upon your request.'_

'_Once we perform our obligation, you will be bound. If you fail to perform your duties, or if you divulge the particulars of our arrangement, this knife will take your life. So be it.'_

Seth's eyes widened as what he heard sunk in and the voices faded. He hadn't been specific enough. They'd found a loophole, _'upon your request,'_ and he was quite unsettled by how vulnerable he suddenly felt.

Silence reigned in the area until Seth asked quietly, "Why not just send me now if you know what you want? I'm right here."

"Your sacrifice was part of the bargain."

"The personal toll you pay matters. Not only how you benefit us."

Seth was bothered at this but he tried to remain calm and keep his emotions in check. "So what, are you going to call me away when my first child is being born or something?"

"Perhaps," Wilna answered.

"That isn't a terrible thought," Orna chimed in.

Seth ran his hands through his hair quickly, giving it a messy appearance. He was very nervous. Being indebted to mysterious, powerful magical beings with a spontaneous due date for repayment somewhere out there on the horizon was not comforting.

The Sisters stared at him while he fought internally with himself, patiently waiting for his response.

"Alright," he finally acquiesced. "A deal is a deal. How will I know when the time is right?"

"You will know," Wilna replied. "There will be no mistake."

He mentally cursed at his situation. "Very well. I'm assuming Vasilis is to remain here until I am called?"

"That would be according to the terms of our bargain. You will not wield it again until your task has been set."

"Relinquish the sword and the wraith and be on your way."

Seth passed the box containing the wraith he'd brought from the Hall of Dread back home to the troll who walked up to him from seemingly out of nowhere. He then removed the scabbard containing Vasilis from his belt and held it in his hands for a moment before passing it to the same troll. 'Thank you,' he thought, pointedly hoping that somehow the sword would be able to sense his gratitude. Parting with it was more difficult than he'd thought it would be; that sword had proven to be infinitely necessary. He didn't know how they could possibly have managed the Zzyzx fiasco without it. Vasilis had protected him, his sister, and had allowed Bracken's plan to succeed which ultimately prevented the end of the world.

"Don't wait until I'm a feeble old man to drag me back here," Seth said as he turned around and followed a different troll back to the entry door. He could hear the Sisters mumbling indistinguishably to themselves as he left.

This was not going to be good. His gut told him so.

* * *

Happy Mother's Day to all of the ladies out there, whether or not you have children of your own. It doesn't take blood relation to be able to mother a child. Here's the part where I shamelessly say that my birthday is also on Sunday and I'm just hoping for a relaxing day with my happy kids. :) Have a great weekend, everyone!


	5. Baking

Here's a bit of fun. :) Thank you everyone for your kind words, favorites and follows!

* * *

**Chapter 5: Baking**

Whatever Kendra was making in the kitchen, it smelled wonderful. She had taken to baking lately and found it to be not only relaxing but very rewarding. It gave her a sense of accomplishment to be able to turn out breads, pies and cookies that looked just as good as the pictures in the cookbooks. Well… maybe not quite as fancy. She wasn't very skilled at decorating or frosting, so her cakes looked simple and her cookies were lucky if they were coated with a simple glaze. She loved to share her work though, and the people (as well as certain satyrs) that lived at or visited Fablehaven seemed to appreciate acting as her taste testers.

She hadn't baked much before Seth had left to deliver Vasilis and the wraith to the Singing Sisters; she'd been a nervous wreck waiting at home for news about her brother's quest, although she tried not to show it too much. Mom had been nervous too and she managed to cajole Kendra into helping her make bread to pass a little of the time and perhaps take their minds off of Seth for a little while.

It didn't really work as a distraction, but she quickly found that kneading dough was a great frustration reliever and measuring ingredients at least helped her feel like she was doing something constructive with her time. She kept picturing her brother and the small party that went with him – Warren, Vanessa and Bracken – coming back to homemade treats and before she knew it, she and her mother had made not only the couple loaves of bread they had initially planned on but also several dozen cookies and a lemon meringue pie. Dad kept himself busy by continuously smuggling cookies – which earned him several quick swats on his hands and shoulders from his wife – and which also prompted the two women to bake even more.

"If we keep this up, the brownies might get jealous about not having any cooking to do," Kendra had joked, to which her mother replied, "Mmmm… Brownies sound good. Let's make some of those next!"

Kendra's grandmothers and grandfathers had periodically stopped by to either join in or taste test and wonder aloud about what they were going to do with all of these baked goods when Marla finally had enough of her husband's treat-thieving and sternly insisted that Stan take his son outside to "work off those calories by doing something useful like milking the cow or whatever it is you do all day."

A couple of hours later, they counted up their work: two loaves of wheat bread, two loaves of cinnamon-raisin swirl bread, three dozen glazed sugar cookies, fourteen apple-cranberry muffins, two pans of caramel toffee brownies and the lemon meringue pie of course.

"Yep. We're all going to get fat," Kendra said with a large grin on her face.

"Oh probably," Marla responded happily, wearing a matching smile.

Then, turning slightly somber, Kendra asked, "Seth _will_ be happy to see all of this once he gets home, don't you think?"

"Ha! I'm sure he will! At least he'd better… Baking like this is no small chore." Then she winked at Kendra. "Bracken will probably be pleased too, don't you think?"

"_Mom_," Kendra said, rolling her eyes.

"What? Do unicorns not eat or something? Should I have known that? Is _that_ why he doesn't eat my lasagna?"

"Mo, Mom. Unicorns eat. Well… at least Bracken does, anyway. I don't know any other unicorns well enough to know if they do."

"Why doesn't he eat my lasagna then?"

"There's meat in it. He's a vegetarian."

Marla screwed up her face. "Your boyfriend is weird. I don't think I've met a teenage boy who doesn't eat meat."

"He's not my boyfriend," Kendra responded a little hastily. _And he's not a teenager_, she thought.

"Fine then, he's your boy _friend_. Emphasis on the fact that those are two different words. Boy… Friend. A friend that is a boy." She winked at Kendra. "I can keep going if you want."

"Oh please no," Kendra responded, shaking her head as a light blush covered her cheeks.

"Don't you want him to be your boyfriend? He comes over every two weeks almost like clockwork, and he's not made a trip yet that didn't include spending time with you," Marla said. "You are sixteen, you know. Seventeen in a few months. It's normal to be dating about now."

"I know," Kendra started. "I do want to date him, I just… I don't think he's ready for that yet." She paused and then continued, "He did say that he wanted to wait a while before we see where our relationship goes."

"Uh-huh. And how long ago did he say that?"

"Last spring," Kendra said, biting her lip.

Marla thought for a moment before she spoke next. "He's wise," she said simply. Then she patted Kendra on the shoulder affectionately. "I approve," she smiled. "What do you think about that, though?"

"Oh I agree," she responded honestly. "I don't want to rush into something."

"I believe you," Marla said. "But I think you're a little less patient than you're letting on."

Kendra looked like she was going to object, but her mother interrupted her before she could say anything.

"I see the way you look at him, Kendra. You glow. It's really pretty cute – makes me smile. Does he kiss you?" Kendra's eyes grew wide at the very blunt question that seemed to have come from nowhere.

"No," she answered, face turning a little bit of a darker shade of pink. "He sort of cuddles sometimes, but… no."

"Well, your father will be glad to hear that," Kendra's mom started, causing her daughter to gape and protest, "Don't talk to Dad about this!"

Marla laughed and continued to tease her daughter, the memory of said teasing causing present day Kendra to shake her head and chuckle a little under her breath.

She was currently trying her hand at a cream pie by herself in the kitchen. The crust had just finished baking and while it was cooling, she was getting ready to start making the pudding for it – everything from scratch, as her mother had taught her from day one, insisting that everything made from scratch always tasted better than the store bought ready-made or abbreviated versions.

Kendra measured out the sugar she needed and dumped it into the pot she was going to use to make the pudding. She turned to the side to reach for the flour on the counter when she noticed something move out of the corner of her eye and her body immediately tensed up by instinct. Her head snapped around to look at whatever she saw move, and she smiled with relief when she noticed it was only Bracken.

"You scared me," Kendra said. "You're really good at sneaking up on people – I wish you'd stop!"

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "What are you making?"

"Banana cream pie. One of the characters in the book I've been reading was talking about it as one of his favorite things to eat, and it sounded good so I thought I'd make dessert for tonight."

"I don't think I've ever tried that before. What's it like?" he asked.

"Delicious," Kendra responded. "Well… so long as I don't ruin the pudding. That's the hardest part about the whole thing."

"You've made one before?"

"Nope. I'm assuming it's the hardest part because the recipe says it takes around 30 minutes of constant stirring. I know milk burns and spoils easily, so I'll have to be careful."

Bracken smiled. "I know how to mix. Can I help?"

"Of course," Kendra grinned. "I don't like stirring things." She measured out the rest of the ingredients the recipe called for and dumped them into the same pot as the sugar, then turned the stove burner on to medium heat and handed Bracken a rubber spatula. "Your turn," she said, signaling toward the pot.

Bracken stepped forward and began stirring at a good pace. "How long did you say this takes?"

"The recipe says about 30 minutes. Until it thickens. Why, do you think you'll run out of muscle power before that happens?" she teased.

Bracken laughed, Kendra joining in. "I never know what to expect from you," he said.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"No no, it's good. You keep me guessing. I like your fire."

"Yeah… I probably get that from my mom. Maybe from Seth, too."

"I would have to agree with you there." Still smiling, he said, "I don't think your dad likes me much."

She shrugged her shoulders. "He doesn't talk about you when you're not around. At least not with me, anyway."

"Like I said… I don't think he likes me much."

Kendra walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a few eggs. "I don't see why he wouldn't."

Bracken looked at her skeptically. "I'm obviously very interested in his daughter. Of course he's not going to like me."

Kendra's face took on a contemplative expression as she said, "True. You do kind of have this whole 'saved the world and consequently Kendra' thing going for you, though."

"Don't forget, I have this whole 'ageless non-human male' thing going against me," he responded.

"I really don't think he _dis_likes you," Kendra started, "But yeah, I don't exactly think he's your biggest fan either."

"On to other topics… Do you know what you're going to do for your birthday this year?" Bracken asked.

"My birthday isn't until October. It's June. I haven't thought that far in advance," she said, confusion covering her features. "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious," Bracken answered.

"You're not going to clarify, are you?"

"No."

Kendra sighed. "Well, I wasn't even thinking about my birthday, but now I'm really curious why you brought it up."

"It's going to be your seventeenth. That's a big number."

"You do know I'm not technically considered an adult until I turn eighteen, right?" she asked, cracking the eggs and separating the yolks from the whites, placing them in separate bowls.

"I'm aware," he said. "I was just asking."

Once she'd separated out the last egg, she turned to look at him and leaned against the counter behind her. "Okay. What are you planning?"

"Who says I'm planning anything?"

"You brought this up out of the blue."

"And you're the one who's still talking about it."

"It's your fault for saying it in the first place."

"You're the one who's not letting it go. I asked an honest question, and your answer was that you didn't know what was going to happen. That's all I needed to know."

Kendra paused. "Bracken, really. Why'd you even ask?"

He smiled at her mischievously. "You'll find out eventually."

Kendra was normally one who took the high road in situations, one who thought things through before doing or saying anything, one who tried to do the smart thing instead of the impulsive thing.

This time, however, she decided to act on impulse. She reached over to the open container of flour, grabbed a small handful of the white powder, and threw it at the unsuspecting unicorn.

Bracken stopped stirring and coughed a little as he inhaled flour then said playfully, "So it's a fight you want, is it?"

"Not really. I mostly just wanted to do something spontaneous that would make it clear I don't appreciate your vague hints. Now keep stirring – don't you dare let that milk burn!" She smiled teasingly at him. "By the way, you've got a little something right here," she said, motioning over her entire torso with her hand. "You might want to clean that up."

Bracken resumed stirring, however before Kendra knew it there was a cloud of white headed in her direction as he shook himself off. She quickly ran to the side to avoid the dust, then immediately realized her mistake.

She'd left the uncovered container of flour right next to her victim, who just happened to have lightning fast reflexes, unprotected.

The pie was eventually made, however there was also quite a large mess to clean up afterward. And flour was added to the list of items to buy during the next trip to the grocery store.


	6. Sparkles

Sorry for the delay. :) Life gets in the way. This has been mostly written for about two weeks now, I just finally got a chance to start typing it up.

We're back-tracking a little bit from the last chapter. Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 6: Sparkles**

Seth had been a little depressed after his non-quest with the Singing Sisters, skulking around as he wondered what kind of horrible timing they would have and dreading the possibilities. Maybe they'd call for him when he was supposed to have his first job interview. Nah, that wouldn't be important enough. His own wedding day? That seemed a more likely possibility - make his new bride worry about his well-being for however long it took before he could make it back (assuming he _did_ make it back.) Or maybe they really would demand his presence in order to have him miss the birth of his first child after all.

"Snap out of it, man," Warren said during the car ride back to Fablehaven, waving his hand in front of Seth's face.

Seth blinked, then glanced around the car to see Bracken looking at him concernedly and Warren twisted around in the front passenger's seat also watching him. Vanessa was driving like usual - they all wanted to get back as soon as possible, and her wicked driving really didn't bother Seth at all anymore.

"Sorry," he responded. "Forgive me if I'm a little worried."

"What can you tell us about what happened?" Bracken asked, sitting a couple feet away from Seth. They had all tried to get Seth to talk the day before, but all he'd said was that he was tired and didn't want to talk about it.

"I'm not entirely sure," Seth began, but then he shrugged. "They caught a loophole and now the last part of my deal with them has been... postponed."

"Until when?" Warren asked.

"...They didn't say."

Bracken and Warren exchanged significant looks, as though they both immediately seemed to understand what was going on.

"Well there's no sense in moping about it," Vanessa spoke up from the front seat. Her voice held a tone of annoyance to it, but Seth understood that she wasn't upset with him. Being in such close proximity with Bracken for this long was wearing down on her patience. Seth could tell that Bracken felt similarly about Vanessa, however the unicorn masked his feelings a little better than the narcoblix. Kind of. They were both giving each other the silent treatment, only recognizing the other's presence when necessary. Seth wouldn't exactly call that harmony, but at least he didn't have to listen to them bickering back and forth as usual. Their relationship had improved since Zzyzx, but they still preferred to be apart from one another if they had the choice. Neither of them was willing to sit by and let Seth go at his task alone, though, even if it meant enduring each other's company for an extended period of time.

"I know," Seth said, "I just can't help but wonder about when I might go. It's nerve-wracking."

"I get it," Warren answered, "But if you keep beating yourself up over it, you're only giving them more satisfaction."

"Warren's right," Bracken said.

"Of course Warren is right," Warren responded. "He happens to give good advice every now and again."

"Stop being an idiot," Vanessa said. "And Seth, cheer up. We're almost there."

"She called me an idiot," Warren whined with a grin on his face, obviously feigning hurt. Vanessa just rolled her eyes in response and asked, "Remind me again why we're dating?"

"Beats me. Oh, wait... Something along the lines of 'we have some history together.' Yeah, I think that rings a bell."

"Idiot."

Warren kept smiling while Bracken cleared his throat. "Anyway," the unicorn began, "You've got to make peace with yourself. You can either live each day by dreading the next, or you can enjoy the present-"

"We're here," Vanessa said, suddenly coming to a stop. "Who wants to get out and open the gate?" She looked pointedly at Warren as she asked that question.

"I am apparently sacrificing myself for the success of the team," he announced. "Anybody have an umbrella? It's kind of pouring out there."

Seth picked up the one at his feet and handed it to Warren. "Here's one," he said as he passed it over.

"Warren, wait - I can do it," Bracken said, unbuckling his seat belt.

"I like you too much to put you in the line of fire from Vanessa. She's pretty good at aiming at things with cars."

"I have never run someone over!" Vanessa protested.

"Oh, but she could. Don't worry about it, I'll be right back." He opened his door and stood up, taking the umbrella and opening it over his head quickly as Bracken leaned forward with another insistance on his lips.

A cascade of fine, golden glitter suddenly fell out of the umbrella and coated Warren's hair, face, shoulders, arms, and even some of the car. Seth immediately started to chuckle, which led to full-on laughter, while Vanessa looked at Warren quizzically as though not understanding why there was glitter everywhere and Bracken planted his face into his hands, shaking his head.

Warren had quickly shut his eyes tight. After pausing for a moment he asked, "Has the fairy dust stopped falling yet?"

Seth's brain started to compute, and the conclusion he reached only filled him with more mirth. It was a relief and quite a stark contrast from the serious atmosphere of the past several days.

Fairy dust... Practically insisting to jump out into the rain... Bracken.

"It was you, wasn't it?" Seth laughed, pointing at Bracken.

"Is it that obvious?" Bracken asked, still shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Warren - that wasn't meant for you."

"Do I want to know why you filled an umbrella with glitter? Yes, actually, I do," Warren said, brushing off his shoulders and his face. It didn't have much effect, aside from maybe to spread the shimmering bits over even more of his skin and clothes.

Seth paused in his laughter and said, "He meant for me to open it. I played a practical joke on him and Kendra a little while ago and I guess this was the revenge I'm supposed to have been dreading." He chuckled a little more after that.

"Sorry," Bracken apologized again, looking bashful. "Gold looks good on you, Warren."

"It just _had_ to be glitter, didn't it? That stuff is evil. I'll still be finding it two weeks from now at this rate," Warren complained.

Bracken shrugged his shoulders and Vanessa rolled her eyes again before saying, "Warren, please go get the gate already."

Warren shut the car door and walked toward the gate to open it after first bowing and saying, "Yes, Master," to Vanessa.

The narcoblix then turned around and fixed her gaze on Bracken. "You will be detailing my car. Inside and out," she demanded, leaving no room for argument.

Bracken didn't fight her. "Fair enough," he ceded.

"Today," she insisted.

"Fine," he answered.

Seth grinned. "Looks like you lost this battle too," he directed toward Bracken. The unicorn just rolled his eyes and said, "Well, at least you look a little less depressed."

* * *

It was brilliant. How do you get the trickster to feel better? By playing tricks, of course!

The episode in the car got Seth thinking, and - after they'd officially arrived back at the house and settled in with some cookies and brownies that had surprisingly come from Kendra and Mom - he had several ideas roaming around in his head. Harmless ideas; nothing too cruel.

Besides, if Seth was being completely honest with himself, it was a relief to have something else to think about right now. And something fun, no less.

He started with Vanessa's cell phone. She left it unattended for a minute while she went into the kitchen for something, and Seth - after making sure no one saw him - picked it up and slid it into his pocket. He pulled out the roll of tape he kept in his emergency kit (which hadn't yet made it back upstairs after their trip) and glanced around. The dining room was dim at the moment, so Seth grinned and headed in that direction - if they couldn't see him, how could he be caught?* Sure enough, Vanessa walked right past him without noticing him and Seth wondered if she was looking for her phone yet.

"Where did you leave it last?" he heard Warren ask from the living room.

"I thought I'd left it on the coffee table, but it's not there," she responded. Then, placing her hands on her hips she said, "I give up. Warren, can you call my number? I'll find it that way." She walked out of the dining room and into the living room.

Seth quickly chose the wooden chair that was nearest to him, quietly pulled out a couple long pieces of tape, and stuck her phone to the underside of the chair.

Then he walked away as quietly as possible. It wouldn't do to have Vanessa or someone else come into the dining room and expose him by turning the lights on. No... he had to leave the scene of the crime, so he went into the kitchen and swiped another cookie to munch on while he observed what happened next.

Sure enough, Vanessa's phone started ringing and she ran into the dining room, turned on the lights, then paused as she glanced around and couldn't see the source of the ringing anywhere. She looked confused and started pulling out chairs from around the table when the ringing stopped. "Warren, can you try it again?" she shouted. "Keep calling until I answer."

Her phone started ringing again, and this time Kendra came into the room to help look. "It sounds like it's over in that corner," she said, moving toward the source of the noise.

"I looked over there," Vanessa said, "but who knows? Maybe you'll find it."

"Do you even remember bringing it in here?" Kendra asked, pulling chairs aside and still not finding the cell phone in question.

"No. I don't think I've been in here since we came back, except for right after I noticed it was missing."

Kendra furrowed her brow, then something seemed to click in her brain. Seth took that as a sign to leave the immediate vicinity as quickly as he could without drawing attention to himself - knowing her, she'd have him figured out in no time flat.

Sure enough, Seth's sister checked the underside of the dining room table. When she didn't find the phone here, she started checking underneath the chairs. It wasn't long before she sat up with an "I've found it. And I'm pretty sure someone deliberately put it there, and I'm also pretty sure I know who."

* * *

Uh oh. :) I'm going to chop this off here. Next chapter will have more general silliness. Thank you everyone for your views and reviews! I'm glad my story is interesting to some people. I didn't realize this series was quite as popular as it apparently is, which is awesome!

*Direct reference to Shadow Charmer awesomeness. In case that wasn't clear.

So, I've been hearing rumors of a Fablehaven movie... anyone know anything about this?


	7. Supergirl

You all are great. :) I'm glad this story is fun for you to read. I have a lot of fun writing it!

MeTheAwesome: Yes, you've started a "thing" lol. It's not going to go on for TOO much longer, but will for a little while! Might be a recurring theme with later chapters, too... not sure yet.

So - about this movie thing! Apparently there is a Facebook group called "Fablehaven Movie Support." Check it out! This info came from PinkFan-Gurl. Thank you!

On to the next chapter. Enjoy!

As an additional disclaimer, I don't own any superheroes or songs mentioned within. I also don't own Star Wars.

* * *

Chapter 7: Supergirl

Kendra peered around the corner of the attic bedroom and looked down the stairs warily, as if expecting something dangerous or spooky to be lurking outside. She didn't see anything, but decided to turn on the light over the staircase for good measure.

Still nothing. She let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in and descended the stairs to enter the living room. Caution forgotten, she rounded the corner at the base of the stairs and jumped a mile when the song "You Are My Sunshine" started ringing through the house with the origination point being about a foot away from her right ear.

"Seth!" she shouted. "I swear, one of these days you're going to wind up dead!"

Apparently he either wasn't within earshot of her or he just didn't care to answer because all Kendra heard was that stupid song playing in high-pitched, cheap electrical tones. Sure enough, when she turned her head to look at the source of the noise she saw a little toy flower sitting on a shelf built into the side of the staircase that was about head-level with her, swaying from side to side as it continued to emit that _annoying_ sound.

Her brother had recently acquired a bunch of light- and motion-sensor toys from heaven-only-knew-where and had hidden them all over the house. Kendra herself had been greeted by a talking octopus that morning when she opened the shower curtain to turn on the water (it said, "Good morning, lovely!"), a singing turtle when she opened the cupboard door to get some granola out for breakfast (that song was "We Will Rock You"), a couple of stuffed dogs that barked when she walked by the television, and now this crazy plastic dancing flower thing. Other members of the family had also stumbled across random toys - she'd heard canned maniacal laughter followed by a string of curses from Warren earlier that day (she thought he might have beaten whatever toy it was to death as well), was present in the dining room when Grandma Sorenson opened the china hutch to put away a cup and instead dropped it when the loud sound of a revving engine started up (it was a little button-sized toy, probably _made_ for scaring people), and Grandpa Sorenson had told her this morning about how he ran into one of those mounted fish that talks and moves at the end of the hallway downstairs while he was still groggy with sleep early that morning.

Needless to say, they were all getting decently annoyed with Seth, who was conveniently nowhere to be seen. He had to be nearby, though - Kendra had walked past that spot at the staircase several times already that day, and there hadn't been a noise maker there earlier. Someone had to have put it there since this morning. Besides... her brother was the kind of person who had to witness his work in action - it wasn't satisfying for him to set up a trap and then leave before he could watch anyone run into it.

Kendra huffed in exasperation. Her brother was clearly abusing his Shadow Charmer abilities. This had been going on for far too long - the past couple of days had been horrible! Kendra never knew what to expect from Seth while he was sneaking around, setting up traps for random people to walk into without anyone noticing.

She picked up the plastic dancing flower and threw it into the small trash bin near the front door. Then she turned around and shouted, "You're a coward for hiding!"

Nothing happened, of course. Kendra left the living room and moved toward the kitchen, thinking that perhaps a glass of water might help her calm down. The freak rainstorm they'd had a few days ago had lifted, but the weather had decided to turn hot and muggy which she was sure was a contributing factor to her bad mood.

She pulled a glass out of the cupboard and walked over to the fridge for some cool water. Just before she opened the refrigerator door, however, she recognized the little button that had been hiding in the china hutch was wedged in between the door and the main body of the appliance. Smirking, she slid her finger around it and pulled it out without causing it to go off. Holding it tightly in her hand, she ran to the cupboard under the sink where the garbage can was and threw it in the bin. Two down, undetermined number to go!

Returning to the fridge, she opened the door and yelped when _yet another_ dancing flower that had been hiding inside started to sing, "Pop Goes the Weasel" in the same cheap, high-pitched tones.

"Seth Michael Sorenson!" Kendra yelled, grabbing the toy flower and throwing it on the floor, effectively breaking it. At the same time, a ball of light appeared and shot toward the middle of the room, hovering in mid-air.

Kendra blinked in surprise as she stared at the ball of light. It looked just like the one she'd seen Bracken produce when she first met him at Living Mirage. She turned around, fully expecting to find the unicorn standing there, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Her brother was, however.

"No way," he said, an equal expression of surprise covering his face. "How did you do that?"

Kendra seemed to momentarily forget her annoyance due to the new development.

"_I_ did that? Are you sure Bracken's not hiding around here somewhere?" she asked, turning back around to look at the ball of light. It illuminated the kitchen extremely well and was still just hovering in place.

"That was definitely you. I saw it come out of your hand when you killed the toy," he explained. "I didn't know you could do that."

The siblings just stood and stared at the light for a moment, then Seth moved forward to grab it. "Seth - what if you get hurt?" Kendra asked, touching his arm. Seth shrugged his shoulders and grabbed at it anyway.

"It's not solid," he said. "My fingers pass right through it."

Kendra moved her hand slightly underneath the ball and, experimenting, she moved her hand to the side several inches. The ball followed her hand as she moved it from side to side and up and down.

"Okay, that's pretty cool. Not gonna lie," Seth admitted.

"Do you ever wonder...?" Kendra drifted off, appearing to be lost in thought.

Seth waited about five seconds before speaking. "Wonder what?" he prompted.

"If we're not really human anymore," she said, frowning.

"Don't be ridiculous. We're still humans. We just have super powers now," Seth answered.

Kendra sent him a pointed look, still cradling the ball in her hand.

"It makes me feel better if I picture myself as Batman. You can be Supergirl if you want."

"Batman doesn't have super powers. He's a rich guy with a lot of gadgets and a fetish for womanizing and angst. The day you turn into him is the day I will not stop hitting you upside the head."

"Way to be a Debbie Downer."

"I probably wouldn't be this wound up if you didn't keep putting stupid toys all over everywhere. This light thing isn't helping the situation, either! I feel like an alien or something."

"An alien, huh? With balls of light? You sound more like Starfire now."

Kendra removed her hand from beneath the ball and it continued to simply hover in mid-air, still glowing with the same intensity as when it first appeared. "You're not helping," she said. "How do you think I get rid of it? I'm not sure I like being an alien."

"How should I know? I'm not your unicorn boyfriend."

Kendra snapped her head toward Seth. "Can I borrow your coin? The one you use to talk to Bracken?"

"It's upstairs. Can't you just tell it to go away or something?" Seth asked, reluctant to fetch it.

She tried. Nothing happened. "Any other ideas?"

"Use the Force?"

"Again, not helpful."

"It came from you. You should be able to concentrate or something to re-absorb it."

"Seth!" she cried in an elevated tone, exasperated. "I've been dealing with your dumb jokes all day, this weather is bothering all of us, and I'm asking you to do one simple thing for me. PLEASE!"

"Fine," he grumbled, exiting the kitchen to head upstairs. It was only a couple of minutes before he came back, during which time Kendra had tried telling the light to leave several times with no success. She had to be over thinking it. Or maybe not thinking hard enough...

"Here," Seth said, passing the coin to Kendra. "I already warned him that you were freaking out."

"Thanks," she said, holding the round piece of silver in her palm and choosing to ignore Seth's statement. "Um... how does this work?"

_That will do,_ Kendra heard Bracken's voice in her mind. Startled, she jumped up and Seth chuckled at her reaction.

Bracken either didn't know she was surprised or he chose to ignore it, but his next words came across with a trace of slight amusement. _Seth told me there's a problem, but he didn't explain what, _she heard._ He also told me that you're worried. What's going on?_

"I was upset at Seth and all of a sudden a light appeared," she said, closing her eyes and picturing what she was talking about, wondering if he'd be able to see her thoughts.

_Yes I can see what you're visualizing,_ he said. _And thanks, that's helpful. Interesting... I didn't know you'd be able to do that._

"Please tell me how to make it go away," she plead. "I don't even know how I did it."

_It was an accident,_ he said. _Still, I've not known a mortal with the capability to do something like this. I'll puzzle over that later, though. You need to command it to turn off._

"That's it?" she asked. "I've been trying to tell it to go away." Looking at the light, she said, "Turn off!"

Nothing happened. The light remained in place.

_No, Kendra,_ she heard. _That's not what I meant. You have to concentrate. Think of what you want to happen, then say "extinguish." It needs to be in the fairy tongue._

She frowned. "I don't know how to purposely speak in the fairy language," she said.

A wave of comfort washed over her with his next words. _I'll help you._

"I trust you," she responded.

_How has your day been?_ he asked. He sounded pleased.

"What does that have to do with anything?" she asked.

_Just talk to me for a moment. Please. Tell me what Seth did earlier that was bothering you so much._

"He's perpetuating his stupid 'prank war.' We all keep running into things that start talking or singing or just making awful sound effects. He's purposely trying to antagonize innocent bystanders. It's ridiculous."

_Hmm. I have something in mind that may get him to stop._

"What's that?"

_Just in idea form right now. I'll tell you when I've worked out the details._

Kendra looked around for her brother to find him standing near the fridge with an apple in his hand - apparently to snack on - and he was looking at her oddly.

She decided to return his odd expression with one of her own and mouth the word, "What?"

_Your brother looks funny like that._

"Yes he does," she said, turning back around to face the light again.

_Try it again. Just say "extinguish."_

"I already told you - I don't know how to purposely speak in the fairy language."

_I think you should give it a shot. "Extinguish."_

"Extinguish," Kendra said; and much to her astonishment, the light disappeared. "How did I do that?" she asked.

_You're great at speaking in the fairy language unintentionally,_ Bracken said. _You've been talking to me in it for a while now. I wasn't sure if that idea would work, but I thought that if I could get you started then perhaps you'd just continue on your own._

"Good job, whatever you just said," Seth said, chomping loudly into the apple.

"It worked!" she responded, again ignoring her brother. "Thank you! I was starting to wonder if we'd just have a hovering light in the kitchen for the rest of forever."

_It would have extinguished itself eventually,_ he responded. _It probably would have been a few hours, if not a couple of days, though._

"How did I do that in the first place?" she asked. "I don't want to do it again."

_That's the thing I need to think about. Obviously it had something to do with you being fairykind. Were you thinking about light when you were upset?_

Kendra thought hard, trying to remember what had been running through her mind about fifteen minutes ago. She stopped when she remembered - she'd wished that the room was so bright that her brother wouldn't have anywhere to hide. Strongly wished.

_That probably did it,_ he said. _I think we may need to have some tutoring sessions. I'll teach you how to purposely write and speak in the fairy language, and maybe we'll discover more things you can do._

Kendra bit her lip. "I'm alright with learning the language, but... more abilities? I already feel so different from everyone else."

_It's nothing to be ashamed of,_ he said. _Actually, it's something to be proud of; but I see your point. I won't push you to try new things unless you want to see what else you're capable of._

"Thank you, Bracken. I really appreciate your help. Thanks for calming me back down again."

_No problem. I'm glad to have had an opportunity to talk to you, even if it was only for a short while. I won't be able to make it back to see you for about another week - we're working really hard on opening up another shrine. A lot of the creatures of light were cut off from the fairy realm when Mother destroyed all of her shrines last year. This place still looks messy, but we're making progress. Our top goal at the moment is to re-open as many shrines as we can._

"I'll let you get back. Thanks again... I'll see you the next time you come around," Kendra said. She then handed the coin back to her brother, who pocketed it and continue munching on his apple.

"Are you done speaking in alien now?" he asked.

"I didn't do it on purpose," she responded. "And don't talk with your mouth full. It's really gross."

"Yes, Mother," Seth said, rolling his eyes.

Kendra realized she was still holding an empty glass in one hand, then remembered her original quest to pour herself a glass of water and moved back to the fridge to retrieve the pitcher. She opened it and screamed when the little button she'd thrown away just a little while ago started making revving engine sounds again, then glared murderously at her brother. The little sneak had put it in there while she was distracted!

"I'm going to punch your face in," she said dangerously.

"I guess that's my cue to run," Seth said, suddenly turning to the side and dashing for the back door. Maybe it would be a good idea for him to grab the rest of the toys and throw them away or donate them or something. If they could make his normally peaceful sister want to tear him apart limb from limb, he wondered what they'd do to the other people in his family.

Then again, maybe he should give them to Newel and Doren. They'd be sure to find some random use for them until the batteries died.

All he knew was right now, he was running away from a sister who was determined to catch him.

* * *

There we go. :) Some silly brother and sister exchanges.

I'm planning for a lot of Brackendra in upcoming chapters. Starting with the one after the next one. You've been warned. ;) I'm a sucker for romantic fluff.

I'm trying to keep all of the characters' personalities in check. I know when I was a teenager, I would have amazing moments of maturity followed by amazing moments of immaturity fairly frequently. I'm trying to make Kendra and Seth relateable/realistic as I age them - hopefully that's coming across correctly.

Thank you everyone for your favorites, follows and reviews! I'm really happy that this story seems to have been enjoyed so far!


	8. Breakfast

Thank you everyone for your reviews! You all have flattered me. I had a lot of fun writing the last chapter. Major superhero/Star Wars geek over here. :) I hope you enjoy this one! A good portion of it was written before the last chapter was even thought up.

* * *

**Chapter 8: Breakfast**

Things were getting out of hand. Seth had been going crazy with pranks - from filling the shower head with grape juice mix to putting pancake syrup in the kitchen soap container to putting a numbing oral gel on everyone's toothbrushes and more. Bracken decided he needed to put an end to it - and since Seth started it, he figured Seth should be the one to stop it. If his plan was going to ultimately work, Bracken couldn't be seen. Not by anyone. So far so good - he'd been there for about half an hour already and no one seemed to be any the wiser.

Bracken understood that Seth had a peculiar fascination with windows and things outside of windows, which still didn't really explain why he was currently in the backyard, late at night, watching Seth through the windows like a predator stalking its prey.

He was waiting for Seth to go to bed before setting up his ruse. The boy had been sitting in the living room of the house watching something on the television and occasionally trading words with his sister who had her nose in a book. She didn't look too thrilled at Seth's comments or questions or whatever he was saying, but she didn't appear to be particularly bothered either. Bracken wondered idly if this was a normal evening for them. He wouldn't know - he didn't usually make a habit of sneaking around people's houses at night, after all.

The siblings sat in silence for a little while longer. Kendra temporarily put her book in her lap, yawned and rubbed her eyes, then resumed reading. Finally, after another fifteen minutes or so, Seth turned off the TV. He said something to his sister, then headed toward the staircase to presumably go to bed. Bracken ran around to the turret where he knew the Sorenson siblings slept and waited for a few signs.

Sure enough, the light in the room turned on a couple of minutes later - Seth had apparently made a stop on the way up to the bedroom. A few more minutes passed and then the light went out.

Go time.

Bracken muttered a couple of words under his breath and a very small ball of ghostly light appeared over his open hands. He removed his hands from beneath the light and motioned upward, the ball then proceeding toward the window outside of the Sorenson siblings' bedroom. Just before the light reached the window, Bracken performed another quick motion with his right hand and the ball of ghostly light suddenly transformed into an awfully creepy-looking humanoid shape with flowing robes and the same muted, translucent appearance as the ball had held only a moment before. Another flick of his wrist and the shape held an ancient-looking axe. He directed the shape to float just outside the window and waited for some from of reaction to follow.

He expected a shout, for the the lights to suddenly turn on - something to prove that Seth had caught the memo.

He did _not_, however, expect to hear the sound of Kendra's shrill, frantic scream.

His stomach plummeted as he frantically motioned with his arms and the spectral figure disappeared.

Time to turn himself in. Mission failed.

* * *

"Bracken," Stan began, "We are indebted to you for the aide you provided in our darkest hours. You are a good being and you have been a great friend to my grandchildren."

Stan moved behind his desk in his study and sat down, gesturing to the chair on the opposite side in a silent offer to his guest. Bracken remained standing, feeling awkwardly like a scolded child as the stupidity of his actions was hitting home.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly, his apology sincerely heartfelt.

"I know," Stan said. "I can tell you're giving yourself a worse lecture than I could." He swiveled in his chair from side to side for a few seconds, then stood up. "I don't really need to tell you how childish and utterly ridiculous that was, do I?" he asked, walking closer to Bracken.

"No, sir," the unicorn answered. "I understand completely."

Stan paused, then shrugged his shoulders and said, "Alright. If you promise not to do it again, I promise not to tell Scott and Marla that you were stalking their children tonight." He smirked at this, picturing their reactions in his head.

"Absolutely! I won't ever do it again!"

"Good. You know, you're lucky they've been at the old manor with the Larsens tonight. I think my son might have murdered you otherwise."

Bracken didn't have a response to that, so he asked a different question instead. "Is Kendra alright?"

Stan chuckled. "Oh, she'll be fine." He walked over to the study door and smiled at Bracken before saying, "Brace yourself," and opening the door.

There stood Kendra, a deep frown set into her face. She marched into the study, punched Bracken in the arm as hard as she could, glared at him for a second and then shouted, "That was all part of your stupid game with my brother!?"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you - I wanted to knock some sense into Seth and get him to stop pranking people. I would never intentionally do something like that to you," Bracken quickly spat out, holding his hands out in front of him in a very apologetic fashion.

"You didn't even _think_ about the fact that Seth and I share a room, did you!? Or that I might have been tired and decided to go to bed!"

Bracken hung his head, shame settling in.

Kendra took a deep breath and put her fingers to her temples in an effort to cool herself off before responding. "Look... I'll calm down. Give me some space and some time to get over how much of an _idiot_ you are, and we'll be fine."

"I am so, so sorry, Kendra," Bracken said, moving toward her and motioning as though he wanted to embrace her.

Kendra quickly moved out of the way. "Try me again tomorrow. I'm going to bed." And with that she turned around and stalked out of the room, slamming the study door behind her.

Stan could tell that Bracken wasn't physically hurt - he doubted Kendra would ever be able to actually wound the unicorn - but he could also tell that Bracken was quite upset with himself.

"Don't mind her too much. She'll calm down," Stan said. "Some schmoozing on your part might help speed things along."

"Schmoozing?" Bracken looked distracted, but also confused at that particular word.

"You know... something sweet. A fancy apology. A reason to encourage her to be happy with you again."

"I never thought that she would be _un_happy with me. I feel terrible." He looked like he felt terrible - it was quite obviously written across his face.

Stan walked toward the study door and stood in front of it for a moment. "You know Kendra," he said, facing Bracken as he spoke. "How many times has Seth done something dumb to make her mad? And yet she always forgives him. It's late at night, she's tired and stressed. This was just bad timing is all. I'm sure she'll feel better in the morning after she's had some rest."

"Maybe you're right," Bracken conceded, sounding doubtful. "I'll come back tomorrow."

"The guest room is open," Stan suggested. "You can sleep in there if you'd like. It would mean less travel for you."

"Thank you. I appreciate your hospitality," he stated.

"Just fix things with my granddaughter tomorrow." Stan smiled again, opened the door and exited the room, leaving the unicorn to his thoughts of how he could "fix things."

* * *

Bracken woke early the next morning to the smell of something delicious. He assumed someone was making breakfast and decided to help them - perhaps he'd be able to recover some of his dignity that way - then threw on his shirt and made his way to the kitchen.

Kendra was there, and it looked like she was at the tail end of making some type of fruit pastries. One batch was out of the oven and cooling - hence the wonderful aroma wafting through the house - another batch was in the oven, and it looked like she was finalizing a third batch for oven readiness. Bracken stood in the doorway and watched her for a moment until she started talking without looking up at him.

"Good morning," she said. Her tone of voice didn't give Bracken any hint as to how she may have been feeling or what kind of mood she was in.

His facial expression seemed to say 'here goes nothing' as he stepped into the kitchen. "Hi," he said.

She finally glanced at him after a little while and sent him a small smile before looking down at her work again. He breathed out with relief - maybe she _wasn't_ still upset with him after all. Maybe Stan was right.

"I am so sorry about last night," he blurted out. "I should have been more careful, really thought things through, and well... been less of a creep."

"I know you didn't mean it," she said. "I overreacted. I'm sorry, too."

Bracken smiled widely at her and moved closer to look at the pastries she had baked. "Strawberry?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered. "Most of the ones in the oven are also strawberry. These ones are blueberry."

"Can I help with anything?"

Kendra looked around. "I've already finished making them. All that's left is to wash the dishes."

"I'll do that," he answered eagerly, walking straight toward the sink before Kendra could say anything. She didn't protest, just nodded her head and checked on the turnovers that were in the oven.

Silence fell between them. It wasn't uncomfortable, but it wasn't exactly normal either. Kendra took the pastries out of the oven and put the last tray inside at about the same time that Bracken finished washing the dishes. She then started taking the first batch of strawberry turnovers off of the baking sheet they had been cooling on and placed them on a large platter. Bracken watched her as she did that, wondering how he could breach the silence without making the slight awkwardness worse. This wasn't exactly his area of expertise.

She stopped moving, placed her palms down on the counter in front of her and tilted her head backward. "You're staring at me," she said, not looking at him.

Bracken quickly looked away. "Sorry."

"Is there something you wanted to ask me? You usually only stare when you're not sure how to say what you want to say."

"You... know me too well," he said, scratching the back of his head. "I was just wondering... what made you want to get up this morning and make breakfast? You must have been awake for a while."

She turned around to look at him. "Consider it a peace offering," she said. Then she went back over to the oven to check on the progress the last batch of turnovers was making. "They're getting close," she said. "Only a little while longer."

Stan chose that moment to walk into the kitchen. "Good morning Kendra, Bracken," he greeted. Migrating toward the cooling pastries he commented, "Those look wonderful."

"They're for breakfast. Here," she said, placing a couple of strawberry ones on a plate and handing it to her grandfather.

"Thank you," he responded, sounding genuinely pleased. "Strawberry is my favorite."

Kendra smiled. "I know," she said. "That's one of the reasons why I picked them."

Stan gave his granddaughter a one-sided hug while he held the plate in his other hand. "Isn't my Kendra wonderful?" he asked, pointedly looking at Bracken.

"Yes, she is," the unicorn responded in a happy tone.

Kendra broke away from her grandfather's side and returned to the oven, removing the last batch and bringing them over to the counter to set down the hot tray. She grabbed a couple more plates and placed two pastries on each one, then proceeded to move the rest of the second batch of turnovers to the same platter that the first batch occupied. She left the third batch where they were for now in order to allow them to cool down a little first.

Picking up one of the two plates she'd prepared, she handed it to Bracken. "These ones are for you," she stated.

Bracken took her proffered peace offering and thanked her appropriately. "Are you going to eat as well?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "Not yet. I'm going to wait until Grandma Sorenson gets up. We usually eat breakfast together."

"I'll wait as well, then," he responded. Warren and Dale wandered into the kitchen from the back yard a few minutes later and looked not only surprised, but thrilled to have fresh-baked pastries for breakfast.

"You are the best," Warren told Kendra, wide-eyed.

"I second that opinion," Dale agreed. The brothers grabbed a few pastries each and headed into the dining room to sit at the table while they talked with Stan about the morning chores and who would be doing what.

Ruth showed up not long afterward and greeted them both with smiles. "Good morning," she said. "You made these?" she asked Kendra.

"Yeah," Kendra responded. "I found the recipe in one of your old books."

"The thin one with the yellow binding?"

"Yep. That's it."

Ruth's eyes glowed with pride. "That is one of _my_ grandmother's recipes. I haven't had these since I made them when Stan and I were young parents," she said. "What a pleasant surprise!" She reached toward the second plate Kendra had prepared earlier, but Kendra stopped her.

"Those ones are for Seth," she said. "Here's a clean plate for you, Grandma. You can choose the ones you want."

"Reserving some for your brother before they're all snatched up, are you? That's probably a good idea," she said, winking at Kendra. As if on cue, her brother walked into the kitchen at the same time as Stan came in looking for a second helping.

"Don't overdo it," Ruth warned her husband.

"I think I can manage my own diet," Stan responded. Ruth rolled her eyes, then handed Seth the plate Kendra had set aside earlier. "Here you go, dear," she said.

"Dessert for breakfast? Score!" Seth said, immediately retreating to the dining room once he secured the plate in his grip. Kendra chose a couple of turnovers for herself, then followed her grandmother into the dining room while Bracken tagged along behind her.

"Kendra, these are delicious," Dale complimented her when she sat down.

"No kidding," Warren chimed in.

"Thank you," she said before taking a bite herself.

Bracken smiled and had to agree with everyone else - the pastries were wonderful, and he told her so.

"These are pretty good," Seth admitted. "But why did you make them? You did quite a bit of shouting last night. I thought you'd have been ticked off at everyone all day today still."

"I told Bracken earlier - it's a peace offering," she explained. "Don't get used to it. These are worth every minute I spent on them, but they're still a lot of effort."

Seth looked at her oddly. "Uh-huh," he said in a tone that clearly showed he didn't believe her reasoning.

"Does it matter why I made them?" she asked. "I felt like baking. I've been doing that a lot lately."

"I've been enjoying your baking a little too much," Stan said, lightly patting his belly. "I think I'm going to need to exercise alongside some of the cattle later."

"That would be a good idea," Ruth replied.

"Thank you, darling wife."

"You said it, not me."

Conversation around the breakfast table remained lighthearted. When everyone had finished, Stan, Warren and Dale stood up and took their empty plates to the sink, then exited to the back yard to start their morning chores. Kendra, Bracken and Ruth also moved to the kitchen and Seth trotted along behind them. Ruth volunteered to do dishes while Bracken offered to help Kendra package up the remaining few pastries and Seth stole another one to munch on.

After a few moments of idle chatter in the kitchen, Bracken started to notice that his stomach was doing weird flip-flops. He shrugged it off as nothing, but then noticed that Seth had paused halfway through the pastry he had stolen and was staring up at Kendra with an expression on his face that made him look like he was about to be sick. Bracken looked over to Kendra to find her smirking and looking back at Seth pointedly.

"Are you going to stop pranking people now?" she asked.

Seth put the half-eaten pastry down on the counter and placed his hands on his abdomen. "What did you do to me?" he asked. Directing his attention to Bracken, he added, "Are you feeling gross, too?"

"A little, I guess," Bracken admitted. "Not enough to bother me too much, though. Am I missing something?"

"She poisoned the food," he muttered.

"'Poison' is a strong word," she said. "Try 'ground up a nice laxative and put it in your breakfast.' That's more accurate."

Seth paled. Ruth turned around from the sink and laughed. "Nice one," she complimented Kendra, continuing to chuckle. "Did you get both of them?"

"Most definitely," Kendra admitted, grinning.

Suddenly, Bracken's stomach lurched and he immediately understood what Seth was talking about.

"How could you!?" Seth cried out, jumping away from the counter and dashing out of the kitchen.

Kendra walked up to Bracken and shot him a smug look of triumph, then gave him a hug and said, "I forgive you now. And don't mess with me again." Then she let him go and gave Ruth a high-five as they both erupted into peals of laughter.

Bracken and Seth both learned a valuable lesson that day - if you push Kendra too far, you will surely regret it.

* * *

And thus ends the prank war. ;)

The next chapter hasn't been written yet - it's all in my head right now. It will probably be up in a couple of weeks. I still have three or four future chapters either completely or almost completely handwritten out, but we're not to those points yet. I've really appreciated this particular prompt - it's inspired a lot of silliness and fun that otherwise would have been absent from the original loose storyline I'd imagined. (I'm open to more writing prompt suggestions if you'd like to offer one up. Same as before - no guarantees I will use it, but the possibility does exist! Otherwise, I have pre-existing ideas that I will continue to move forward with.) At this point, I have no idea how many more chapters I'm planning to write. Suffice it to say I expect this will continue for quite a while longer.


	9. Birthday

Hey everyone. :) My boys and I have been down and out with really bad head colds. Who gets sick in the summer time? Apparently we do! Anyway... again, I am flattered by all of the feedback you all have been sending my way. Thank you so much for your kind words, favorites and follows! This chapter is a very, very long one. And lots of fluff. I'll be interested to see what you all think of it... I hope it's not too over the top. I'm not going for Edward Cullen here – I'm just trying to be true to Bracken's personality.

Other news: I might have a job soon as an editor. ;) Fingers crossed!

* * *

**Chapter 9: Birthday**

"Mom. No. _Definitely_ not that one," Kendra said, blushing slightly.

"What's wrong with it? I think it's cute. And what a fun color!" Marla responded. She was holding up a scandalously short, bright red dress for her daughter to see.

"It will barely cover anything. Are you kidding me?" Kendra was eying the backless, sleeveless dress with embarrassment. She would never be comfortable in something like that!

"A woman's body is beautiful, Kendra," Marla laughed. "But I was just kidding. Your dad would kill me if I let you go out in public in something like that. It's not you, anyway." She rifled through the rack in front of her for a few moments and pulled out a long, dark blue dress. "Oh, I really like this one," she commented, walking over to stand next to Kendra. "What do you think?" she asked, showing her daughter what she'd found.

Kendra smiled. "Wow. I agree – that _is_ really pretty!" She took the hanger from her mother and draped the dress over her arm along with a couple of other ones she'd found to try on. Marla ushered her daughter to the nearby dressing room and took a seat in one of the cushy chairs reserved for those who were waiting for their friends (or daughters) to put their selected outfits on display.

She was glad Kendra had agreed to do this. Formal dress shopping was something Marla had looked forward to ever since her daughter had started middle school. When Kendra had been presumed dead just a couple of years back, she had lamented many such lost opportunities with her daughter; now that she had her back, she had been taking advantage of all of the time they had together by creating as many fun memories as possible.

A couple of minutes passed before Kendra walked out of the stall she'd claimed wearing a knee-length, willowy dress that matched her eye color – darker than emerald, but not quite forest green. The young woman stepped onto a small pedestal several feet in front of her mother and looked at her reflection from a few different mirrors that had been hung up along the walls of the room. She moved around to try and see how the gown fit her from behind by lining up angles of the mirrors, but couldn't get a good enough view to be satisfied.

"Well? What do you think?" Kendra asked her mother once she'd mostly stopped looking at herself in the mirrors.

"It's nice," Marla said. Her tone of voice indicated that she was of an indifferent opinion.

"Just nice?" Kendra prompted.

"Well, if you want me to be totally honest, you look kind of Irish. I'm half expecting you to start breaking out into Riverdance or something. It's not a bad thing, it's just... not what I was wanting for you today."

Kendra looked down at herself again. "Riverdance? Really?"

"You asked," Marla responded, shrugging her shoulders. "It doesn't really match what we're going for tonight. You need something a little more formal than that."

"If you'd tell me where we're going tonight, I might actually have a better idea of what kind of dress I'm supposed to be looking for," Kendra hinted, trying to get her mother to let on even just a little bit.

"Nu-uh, no spoilers," she teased.

Kendra let out an exasperated huff and marched back to the dressing room stall to try on something else. "This had better be good," she said through the door loudly.

"Of course it's going to be!" Marla answered. "You'll love it!"

Scott and Marla – well, mostly Marla with the "support" of her husband – had planned something special for their daughter's seventeenth birthday. It was going to be a fun evening, and she was deeply excited to see the look on Kendra's face once she learned what it was that she would be doing.

The next dress Kendra came out in was very different for her – long and dark purple with a small, lighter purple bow on her left hip. She looked at her mother and, without even stepping up to the pedestal like the last time, she shook her head. "I don't think I like this one after all," she said.

Marla had to agree. "I bet it looked great on the hanger."

"It did!" she heard as her daughter rounded the corner to return to her stall.

Several minutes passed until she heard the lock on Kendra's door slide open. When she caught sight of her daughter, she beamed. "That's the one!" she cried out enthusiastically. "I chose the winner! Yes!"

Kendra looked uncertain. "Are you sure?" she asked. "This is way more fancy than I've ever worn before." She walked up to the pedestal and gazed at herself from a couple of different mirrors nearby, clasping her hands loosely in front of her and holding them below her navel. The dress was royal blue and the lower half cascaded loosely to her feet. There were no sleeves, however the bodice did not show off any skin where her cleavage was concerned, which gave it a more modest feeling. A sheer, sparkling piece of similarly colored material loosely drifted down the back of the dress, the same length as the rest of the material. Overall, it was form-fitted and very flattering to her body while still allowing her to come across as a more reserved, classy young woman.

"You are beautiful," Marla answered. She stood up and walked over to the young woman, grinning from ear to ear. "You look so grown up. I could cry right now. I might cry. Don't make fun of me if I do."

"Mom," Kendra replied, giggling nervously. She decided to change the topic. "This dress costs a lot of money."

Marla waived her hand dismissively. "Don't even think about that," she said. "I'm paying for it. It's part of your birthday gift."

"_Part?_ Mom-"

"Since when have we ever given you cause to worry about our financial situation?" Marla interrupted. She looked at the price tag that was hanging out of the top of the gown, near Kendra's arm, and smiled. "This is well within the budget. We'll be able to get your shoes and some gloves and still be under what I had set aside."

Kendra gaped. "How much money did you plan to spend today, exactly?"

"Don't worry your pretty little head over it. This is all my pleasure," Marla smiled. "Well... your father's _and_ mine, technically."

"I don't know what to say." Kendra looked into a mirror that gave her a profile view of herself. "I feel like a princess in this dress."

"That's what I wanted to hear."

* * *

The two women left the shopping mall after collecting a pair of heeled shoes and a couple of long, white gloves to go with the gown, then headed for a nearby hairdresser. It was almost 4:30 in the afternoon when they made it back to Fablehaven, and her mother was stressing about making sure everyone was ready to go on time. She shooed Kendra upstairs to don her recent purchases, then made a dash for the bedroom that she and Scott shared to prepare herself for the evening.

"Do I really have to wear a suit?" Seth complained as she passed by.

"Yes," Marla answered in a matter-of-fact tone, slowing down to look at her son.

"Why can't we just do a birthday party here?"

"Because I want this to be particularly special for your sister."

"When it's _my_ seventeenth birthday, I want everyone to wear ripped up jeans and t-shirts and have a party at the beach. That's way more comfortable than this."

"When it's your birthday, you can have what you want. Within reason. Today isn't about you. Now go finish getting dressed; I expect to see you in the front room with hair combed and jacket on in twenty minutes." She then made it successfully into her own bedroom and started gathering the articles of clothing she would need for the evening for herself.

Fifteen minutes later, Marla emerged in a shimmering black dress that cascaded past her knees. She didn't notice her husband sneak up on her from her side while she was trying to put on her second shoe, and jumped in surprise when she suddenly heard his voice in her ear. "Someone looks especially lovely tonight," he'd said.

"Well thank you," she answered once she recovered from her shock, leaning in and giving him a quick kiss. "Now go find your son and make sure he knows how to comb his hair, please."

"That's all I get? A tiny little peck?"

Marla winked at him, and he grinned. "Behave yourself tonight and you might end up with more," she teased with a smile on her face.

"Alright, I did _not_ need to see that. Or hear that," Seth protested loudly. He was holding a tie in his hands and was otherwise fully dressed for the evening.

Scott and Marla laughed. "I'll help him with his tie. You go check on Kendra," Scott said.

"Where are our parents?" she asked.

"They're sitting in the dining room, ready to go."

"Perfect," she nodded, then headed toward the stair case that led to the attic bedroom.

Kendra was already walking down the steps when Marla approached, and this time her mother did start to tear up a little.

"Mom, what's wrong?" Kendra asked, concern evident on her face.

"Nothing," Marla smiled, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief she'd fished out of her purse. "You're just... not my baby anymore. I'm being overly emotional. It's normal."

Kendra descended the rest of the stairs and embraced her mother. "I'm not a baby, but I'm still your daughter," she whispered. "Thank you for tonight."

"The night hasn't even started yet!" Marla laughed. She looped her arm in her daughter's and led her to the front entryway of the house.

"There are my beautiful ladies," Scott announced as they drew near. He hugged Kendra and gave her a velvet box that was about six inches in length. "This is for the birthday girl," he said, smiling at her. "Open it now, please." Marla and Seth exited the house.

Kendra opened the box and her face betrayed the surprise that she felt. "Are these... are these real?" she asked, bewildered.

"Yes," he said. "I actually bought them for you before you were born, shortly after we found out that you'd be a girl. I've been hanging onto them for a long time, and well... tonight seemed to be the right time to give them to you." He smiled and hugged his daughter again, then pulled the necklace out of the box and clipped it around her neck. It was a simple golden chain, but small diamonds were studded in it periodically. At the center of the necklace were ten diamonds all next to each other in a small circular shape. "I can't tell you how proud I am of you."

She gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, Dad," she said, trying to convey the sincere gratitude and love she felt for her father.

"Let's get out of here." They closed the front door behind them, and Kendra wondered what surprises the rest of the evening would hold for her.

* * *

As the car that held Kendra, her brother and her parents pulled up in front of their restaurant destination, three men in suits dashed up to the vehicle – one to the driver's side where her father was sitting, one to the passenger's side where her mother was, and one to the door behind the passenger's side where she was sitting herself. Kendra was busy paying attention to what was happening with her father – apparently there was valet parking – and didn't notice the gentleman at her door until he opened it.

She turned to face the man who opened her door and her thought processes stopped. Bracken was there, smiling widely at her. Handsome did not even begin to describe him – he was beyond compare.

"May I assist you, milady?" he asked, extending his right hand out toward her.

She raised her eyebrow at the old-fashioned speech, but placed her left hand into his proffered one and used her right hand to help propel herself forward and out of the car. Once she was standing up on the sidewalk, she grinned back at him and embraced him. "What are you doing here?" she asked, obviously pleased that he was there.

"I hitched a ride with your grandparents," he answered. "They're all seated inside already. I wanted to escort you in, so I waited out here."

Kendra looked up at the name of the restaurant. _Chez Philippe_. She'd never heard of this place before but judging by the patrons' and the servers' incredibly formal attire, it was obviously very upscale. "I haven't been here before," she said. "I kind of feel out of my league."

"Believe me when I say that you definitely do not look anywhere near out of your league," he responded. She returned her gaze to Bracken's face and smiled at the open adoration she found there.

"Earth to lovebirds," Seth interjected. "Are we going inside or what?"

Kendra rolled her eyes at her brother's remark. Bracken offered her his arm and the two followed Scott, Marla and Seth into the restaurant. A couple of doormen wearing neatly pressed tuxedos ushered them inside.

The restaurant was amazing on the inside. Kendra was in awe over how fine everything was. The layout was fairly simple; the room was a very large oval, with both ends of the oval holding round tables that were intricately set with what appeared to be fine china. At the center of the oval was a large dance floor with several more circular tables along the sides. The dance floor was empty at the moment, aside from a small group of beautifully dressed men and women who were setting up string instruments. They looked nearly ready to start playing. Kendra counted a harp, two violins and two cellos.

Romantic lighting enshrouded the restaurant. Many guests were being shown to their tables, and several of those who had recently been seated were sipping at glasses of wine and perusing the dinner menu.

Bracken lightly pulled Kendra ahead of her parents and walked up to the hostess. "May I have the name of your reservation?" she asked. Her voice held a light accent that Kendra couldn't place.

"John Carrigan," Bracken responded. The hostess, a woman in her mid- to late-thirties, scanned her register and stopped when she found his name. She looked up to her right, and a gentleman in a tuxedo appeared. He bowed slightly before Kendra, then said, "Please come with me."

He took the Sorensons and "John" to a table on the far right side of the room. The group walked up a couple of carpeted stairs and past a polished oak banister, to a table near the back but toward the center of the other tables. Her grandparents Sorenson and Larsen were seated at a nearby table, but not one of the ones closest to them.

Scott pulled out a chair for Marla, and Bracken did the same for Kendra. Seth pulled out his own chair and sat down while rolling his eyes and slouching forward, already decidedly bored with the evening.

"Seth," Marla tutted, about to quietly scold her son. She was interrupted by the approach of three other gentlemen in tuxedos; one was holding a pitcher of water, one cradled a bottle of wine in his hands, and the other carried a menu for each of them.

"May I interest you in a glass of wine?" the one asked, holding it out for them all to see. Bracken looked like he wanted to say yes, however Kendra had removed her gloves and placed her bare hand in his with the thought, _If you say yes, you will probably need to have an ID on hand to prove you're over 21_. He swallowed his words and his face showed a general feeling of amused gratitude as his response. "I forgot about that," he muttered to her.

She reclaimed her hand as Scott and Marla both accepted the man's offer. The one who held the crystal pitcher of water gracefully poured some for everyone while the third man provided them all with menus, then all three departed. A fourth gentleman approached their table immediately and welcomed them in for the evening. He explained that the musicians would begin their songs in a few moments as the last patrons were being seated, and told them that they were free to dance should they desire to do so. Then, deciding to discuss the carte du jour of the evening, he told them that they would be presented with four courses. The first would be an avocado and romaine salad with a balsamic dressing, the second would be one of two soups to choose from.

"For the main entree tonight, we have a choice between either buckwheat galettes with salmon, capers and dill, or the classic Steak au Poivre with fine savory seasonings, cooked to your liking. If you would prefer a vegetarian dish, we have a spinach souffle that is simply wonderful."

Kendra found the fact that the menu was small to be interesting, but it made it easier to decide.

"Excuse me," Seth began. Everyone's attention turned to Seth, who was suddenly sitting up straight and behaving like a perfect gentleman.

"How can I help you?" their server – Andre – asked.

"The fourth course – am I correct in assuming that will be dessert?"

Andre smiled. "Absolutely," he answered. "I was going to wait to tell you about the dessert options until later on in the evening. There is a wider selection to choose from."

"That is what I wanted to know," Seth responded, settling back into his chair with a satisfied look on his face. Kendra couldn't help but grin – her brother was still her brother, even in a suit.

"If there are no other questions at the moment, I will go welcome another guest and will return shortly to receive your decisions," Andre announced. No one spoke up, so he gave them a small bow and headed off in a different direction.

"This place is impressive," Scott said. "We haven't been anywhere this elegant since that cruise we took a few years back."

"Yes, it's quite beautiful. This restaurant gets only the highest ratings and is nearly impossible to get a reservation for," Marla responded.

"Good choice," Scott approved.

"Oh no, this was all Bracken's doing," Marla responded, winking at the handsome young man sitting across the table from her. Scott choked on his sip of wine.

"Why did _you_ pick this place?" Seth asked, wrinkling his nose. "I mean the menu is decent I guess, but why would you ever want to wear a suit if you didn't have to?"

Bracken chuckled. "It's Kendra's birthday," he answered simply.

"That's not the answer I was looking for."

"Seth, one day you may want to treat a lady to something especially nice," Marla said as she patted Scott's back while he continued to gently cough.

"I don't doubt that. But I'm going to at least have the guts to tell her that I love her," Seth countered, smirking at Bracken in a silent challenge. The boy clearly knew what he was doing.

Kendra's face flushed and she looked away from everyone at the table, wishing she could disappear. Bracken laughed lightheartedly and replied to Seth, "You think I'm going to propose marriage, don't you?" Her eyes widened and her embarrassment increased dramatically as her thoughts raced. Uncertainty reigned over her features. She was _not_ ready for a proposal. They weren't even dating yet!

"Men generally spend a small fortune on women when they are about to ask them to be with them for the rest of forever, yeah," Seth answered.

"Seth, you're embarrassing your sister. Stop it," Marla reprimanded. "Do something about this," she directed toward her husband.

"I want to hear what he has to say," Scott said, staring at Bracken. "Why did you choose a place like this if not to propose? And furthermore, why wouldn't you discuss something like that with me in advance? She's too young-"

"Everyone just... stop!" Kendra spoke up. "This is too much. All of this – it's _too much_." She stood up and grabbed her gloves from off of her lap, but Andre returned to the table before she could go anywhere.

"Is everything alright?" he asked.

Bracken stood up and put his hand on Kendra's elbow. "Everything is great," he answered. "Please excuse us for a moment. The band just started playing and I would like to dance with her."

"Certainly," Andre responded, sounding doubtful as he observed Kendra's distressed expression. "Before you go, have you decided on what you would like for your main course?"

"I will have the souffle," Bracken answered. "She would like the salmon."

"Very well, then. Enjoy your dance."

Bracken quickly led her to the dance floor. "I hope you don't mind," he stated. "I needed to talk to you."

"I don't know how to dance, _John_," she replied unhappily.

"I will lead; you just follow. Please," he pleaded, looking into her eyes. "I want to explain."

What _she_ really wanted was to flee to the women's washroom and hide from her embarrassment.

"You can trust me," Bracken said simply, still holding his hands out in front of him in a gesture for dance.

Peace started to trickle into her. He was right – she did know she could trust him; she always could. Deciding to go along with him, she placed her right hand in his left and he wrapped his right arm around her torso, placing his hand on her spine a couple of inches below where her shoulder blades were. He stood calm and confident.

"Thank you," he said, clearly feeling relieved at her acquiescence. "Your left hand goes on my shoulder."

"Right," she stated, following his instruction.

"This is a waltz," he told her. "The rhythm has three counts to it. On count two, you step up a little on the balls of your feet. It kind of makes us look like we're bobbing up and down as the music plays. The idea is to be graceful and make all transitions smoothly."

"I'm going to step on your feet," she answered.

"Only if you keep thinking that way," he countered. "Just follow my lead. Don't pay attention to your feet; do what feels natural."

"We're the only people out here," Kendra said shyly.

"We won't be for long. The first couple to break the ice is often joined quickly by others who wished they were as brave."

He led her through a few practice measures, then led her off at a steady pace across the dance floor.

"Your brother has a fantastic way of ruining my plans for anything even slightly romantic where you're concerned," he stated. Sure enough, another couple joined them on the dance floor only a few moments after they'd began.

Kendra didn't know what to say, and she was afraid of stepping on Bracken's toes if she concentrated too hard on anything else, so she stayed quiet.

"I did not bring you here with the intention of asking you to marry me," he spoke up again. "If I were going to propose, the whole world would know about it. Not just this room of people." This inspired a nervous giggle from Kendra, which he took as a good sign and continued. "You're missing out on a lot of things by not going back to school," he explained. "I wanted to treat you to something special, something that will give you great memories in future years. I wanted you to feel important and beautiful today."

"You brought me here because I'm being home schooled?"

"No. Partially? I brought you here because you're worth it," he awkwardly tried to explain. "You're worth every penny that could ever be spent on you and more. Today is your birthday – that's why I brought you here. I chose a venue like this, because when you're talking with other women later on about prom and winter formal and everything that you're not going to be part of, you will have something even more spectacular to remember instead."

She understood his sentiment – she _had_ lamented the fact that she would miss these types of things when she decided to be home schooled – and she felt incredibly flattered. She stopped dancing and when he looked at her questioningly, she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into a tight embrace.

"Bracken, this place is more than anything I could have dreamed of."

He smiled and pulled away to hold her at arm's length. "_You_ are more than anything I could have dreamed of," he answered. Her face reddened for the second time that evening as she smiled back at him, but this time she wasn't ashamed of it. He then seemed to register the importance of what he'd said and stammered, a small blush creeping into his own face. "I, um... I didn't mean – well I _did_, but I didn't mean for it to sound like-" Kendra started to laugh a little, and Bracken cleared his throat to collect his thoughts. "I made this way too serious. You're supposed to be enjoying tonight."

"I _am_ enjoying it," she said. "I could have done without that whole interchange at the table, but I've loved everything else about today in general." She embraced him again. "Thank you," she said, hoping he could sense her genuine gratitude.

From the view their table offered, Scott stared at his daughter and _the boy_, watching every move closely. They weren't far enough apart for his liking. He thought about marching down there and forcefully separating the two of them.

"You leave them alone," Marla demanded under her breath. Scott clenched the fork in his hand even tighter in response.

"How could you let her buy a dress like that? It's too revealing."

"Why, because it shows off her shoulders? Oh no, call the police," Marla commented sarcastically. "This is _exactly_ the type of situation I had in mind when I told you to behave earlier tonight. She's seventeen years old. _Seventeen_. She's not our little girl anymore; she's growing up. And if she wants to date Bracken, I say we let her."

"That guy is too forward. Do you see how he dotes on her all the time? And what kind of guy would bring a girl to a place like this unless he's got some sort of ulterior motive?"

"The same young man who kept her safe while the world was ending. The same one who has spent the past year and a half getting to know her quirks and faults and likes and dislikes. The _same_ young man who thought of a wonderful, wholesome date and who is treating our daughter _and_ her parents to a very nice dinner tonight." She patted him on the shoulder. "He's very traditional. There's no way he would do anything to her. You should put more trust in him. And your daughter too, for that matter – she's an extremely sensible young woman. Some would say virtuous, even."

Scott grunted. "I still don't like it."

"You were there when she was born. I don't think you'll ever like any boy she shows interest in, no matter how well-rounded and respectful of her he happens to be." She patted his arm softly, then said, "They're coming back. Please try to at least be polite. And Seth," she stated in a dangerous tone, glaring at her son, "No more of whatever that was earlier. You have been warned."

Seth looked at his dad nervously. Scott sent him a thumb's up and mouthed the words "well done." Marla whacked his arm and muttered something about a certain someone being 'out of luck' later that evening.

"She's my _baby_," Scott protested under his breath, staring off into the distance.

* * *

Bittersweet. :.)

There is pretty much zero character development for Scott and Marla in the books. None! They hardly speak at all (they don't need to, since their presence is not required for pretty much the entire series). It leaves a lot of room for interpretation, so... here's some of my interpretation.

I was thinking along the lines of the dress that Anastasia wore to the ballet from the animated movie a while back. Anyone remember that movie? I still love it.


	10. Preferences

Sorry for the long delay. :) Life has been busy, what can I say?

Additional disclaimer for this chapter: I don't own Star Wars.

* * *

**Chapter 10: Preferences**

"Would you rather be hairy all over or completely bald?" Seth asked.

"Hairy," Warren said quickly.

"Really?" Bracken asked. "I think I'd prefer to be bald. I could wear a wig on my head and call it good."

"Hairy is more... masculine," Warren explained. "It's like a rite of passage into adulthood. I'd feel like a little boy again if I was bald."

"What about you, Seth?" Bracken asked.

"I'm with Warren on this one. I could always shave if I didn't want hair on me."

"See, when you say 'hairy all over,' I picture that... whatever it was... from the movie we watched last night," Bracken said.

Seth's eyes widened. He and Kendra had introduced Bracken to Star Wars the night before. "Chewbacca?" he bit out. "Never mind, Warren. I wouldn't want to look like a wookie. Bracken's right, we could wear wigs."

Warren shrugged. "Sure, I see how it is. Disagree with your cool cousin who made this little adventure a possibility for you. See if I care."

Seth grinned. Warren _had_ managed to talk not only his grandparents, but also his _parents_ into letting Seth go with him to "do just a little light exploration of the preserve." How he'd managed to do that wasn't quite clear to the teenaged boy, but he was glad nonetheless. Even if the three of them were all thoroughly bundled in winter gear to combat the snow and cold temperature.

"Next question. Would you rather be stuck on an island alone or with someone you hated?" the boy asked.

"I'd go crazy by myself," Warren answered. "I'll take someone I don't get along with or generally can't stand – so long as we're not mortal enemies, I'd appreciate having someone to talk to."

"Or even just knowing someone else is around would be nice," Seth chimed in. They both looked at Bracken.

"I'd rather be alone," he confessed. "Solitary creature and all. If I were stuck with one of you, that'd be alright. Otherwise, I think I'd just rather be by myself."

"You left Kendra out," Seth said. "You'd probably _love_ to be alone on an island with her. Mushy romance and stuff."

Bracken's cheeks tinged slightly pink. "I hope you know I wouldn't do anything... unseemly... to your sister," he responded.

"Sure," Seth answered, shrugging his shoulders unconvincingly.

Warren shook his head. "Seth, your fascination with your sister's love life is strange."

"Not as strange as a guy who leads a girl on for almost two years but hasn't even kissed her yet," Seth retorted.

Genuine surprise flashed over Warren's features. "Are you kidding me?" he asked Bracken, stopping in his tracks. "You really haven't kissed her yet?"

"I don't see why either of you should care about that," the unicorn responded flatly, continuing forward.

Seth and Warren looked at each other quickly before they both scrambled to catch up and the latter male spoke. "Apparently I touched a nerve. I'm sorry," he apologized.

"I did it on purpose," Seth announced unabashedly. "Kendra is planning to go to college next fall. Did she tell you?"

Bracken's expression showed that he was hadn't expected that and that he was perhaps a little bothered by this news, but he quickly wiped it away. "She didn't say anything about that. Can she really go so soon? She's only seventeen. I thought she had another year of high school left."

"Why do you think she's been particularly antisocial over the past several months? She's been doing crazy amounts of studying and homework so she can graduate early. She sent out applications for a few different universities about a month ago."

"If she didn't tell you about it, then she probably was waiting to say anything until she knew where she was going," Warren added.

Bracken remained quiet, seemingly absorbing what his companions were saying.

"It's her decision," he finally said after a minute of silence, aside from the sound of the snow crunching beneath their boots as they all walked. "If this is what she wants to do, then she should do it."

"I didn't say she _shouldn't_ go," Seth said. "I'm trying to tell you that once she leaves, she will meet other people. Make new friends."

The unicorn blinked at Seth with a look on his face that seemed to say, "So what?"

"_Male_ friends," Seth explained with exasperation evident in his voice. "A single girl in a new place with lots and lots of guys around... You know?"

"Again, Kendra can do what she wants," Bracken answered. "I don't think she's the type to party all the time, if that's what you're hinting at."

Seth threw his hands in his face. "Apparently I have to spell everything out for you. She wants _you_. But if she goes off to school with no commitments in place, she's going to find someone there who will actually call her his girlfriend."

"Did she tell you all of this?"

"Well... no, but she's my sister. I know her better than anyone else does."

"Look, I understand what you're trying to say," Bracken began. "But I also believe that the details of my romantic life aren't for the world to discuss."

"How do you feel about my sister?" Seth asked, gripping Bracken's arm and looking at him in the eyes. "Be honest."

"Guys," Warren interjected, staring pointedly at something ahead of the trio.

Bracken broke eye contact with Seth to glance at what had caught Warren's attention. "It's a leshi," he announced. "We should alter our course to go around its domain."

"Don't change the subject," Seth insisted. "Although I do want to know what a leshi is in just a minute."

"I care deeply for her, and I have very good reasons to refrain from acting upon those feelings right now," the unicorn responded. "Now I'd suggest we move away from the leshi, unless you'd like to be terribly tortured at least and die a painful death otherwise." He looked back up to where it had been standing last, but it was no longer there. "Warren, where did it go?"

Warren squinted to try and see farther. "I can't see it," he said. "I turned away from it for just a moment and now it's gone."

"That isn't good news for us," Bracken commented. "We should leave. This way," he directed, turning sharply to the left and picking up his pace.

Seth didn't know what a leshi was, but judging by his companions' reactions he figured it'd be best to drop the talk about his sister and follow her non-boyfriend's lead for the time being.

The trio walked along quickly in silence, until Bracken suddenly halted and held his arm out to the side to prevent Warren and Seth from moving any farther forward.

Kendra stood about 20 feet ahead of them, wearing appropriate snow gear. She stared intently at Bracken with a smile and asked, "You love me?"

The unicorn grimaced and responded with a quick, "No." Seth's jaw dropped and he almost shouted at his friend, but he refrained. Something was off about this situation.

"I heard you talking back there," Kendra insisted. "I thought you said you loved me."

"He was talking about the real Kendra," Warren chimed in. "Not you."

"I _am_ the real Kendra," she said, an expression of confusion mixed with happiness on her face. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for Bracken to tell me he loves me. This is fantastic news!"

"Kendra already knows how I feel about her," Bracken responded.

_Seth_, the unicorn communicated through his coin in the boy's pocket. _Do as I say next, and don't act like it's abnormal. That Kendra is actually the leshi... Follow my instructions and we should get away._

"Take off your coats," Bracken mumbled so that both Seth and Warren could hear him. "Turn them inside-out and put them on backwards. Take your boots off and put them on the wrong feet. Turn your hats inside-out and replace them."

Seth did as he was told, but couldn't resist sending a thought message to Bracken through the coin. _This has _got_ to be the weirdest escape maneuver ever._

_Just do it,_ Bracken responded with a sense of urgency. _I'll explain later_.

"What are you _doing_?" Kendra asked as the men all started undressing and re-dressing themselves. "You're being weird."

"I'm more comfortable now," Warren said once he'd figured out how to zip up his coat from behind his back.

"So are we," Bracken said, pointing to himself and Seth.

"I particularly like the pressure on my toes," Seth said sarcastically, grinning.

_Can you try to tone it down a hair?_ Bracken's voice sounded in Seth's brain.

Kendra eyed them skeptically. "I don't think you really like that," she said slowly. "You look funny."

"You're the one who's not dressed right," Warren insisted.

"I doubt that," she said, sounding unsure of herself. She shook her head and said, "Whatever. I found something really cool over there, come with me and check it out!" She was pointing back the way they came.

"We just came from that direction. Nothing was there," Seth whined. "I don't want to go back there."

"You're being a party pooper, Seth," Kendra frowned.

"Your mom's a party pooper," Seth grumbled.

"My mom...?" Kendra trailed off, obviously not understanding. "Look, you must have missed it – there was an awesome island back that way. It had hair on it." She stopped talking and looked very confused by what she'd just said.

The men didn't speak, although Seth had to physically bite his tongue to keep himself from calling her an idiot and an eavesdropper. That thing had obviously been listening in on their conversation! However, in his experience, insulting magical creatures wasn't ever smart.

After several seconds, Kendra gave them an appraising look. "Do you normally wear your coats like that?" she asked.

"Yes," Warren answered. "We've been wearing them like this the whole time."

She continued to stare at them with her face scrunched up in concentration and asked, "Really? Then why do I look like this? I'm different than you are."

"He did try to tell you that you're dressed incorrectly," Bracken said, gesturing to Warren.

Kendra frowned. "There was something I wanted to show you..." she began, but never finished. "I'm really distracted right now."

"You're probably cold," Warren supplied.

"I guess so," she responded hesitantly.

"There _is_ snow around," Seth said, following along.

Her expression looked surprised. "So there is," she said as though she hadn't noticed it before.

"You probably have a nice, warm blanket at home," Bracken said. "Maybe even a comfortable bed. I bet you're tired."

Kendra yawned. "I really am," she answered.

"You should take a nap," Warren suggested.

"That sounds delightful," Kendra agreed. She started to walk away from them, in the direction she had pointed to earlier. As she walked further away, her shape seemed to transform a little at a time until Seth was watching the retreating figure of what sort of resembled a Sasquatch with really long, matted hair and threadbare clothes.

The three men watched the leshi walk away until Bracken calmly and quietly mentioned that they should leave.

"Would anyone care to explain to me what just happened?" Seth asked as they started to walk away.

"Leshis are easily confused. Turning your clothes around and inside-out is an almost guaranteed way to thwart them," Bracken explained.

"Can I put my boots on the right way now?" Seth asked. "It's hard to walk like this."

"Wait until we're outside of the leshi's boundaries," the unicorn said. "We're nearly there. It caught us at the edge."

"Alright. I've got to ask – what in the world is a leshi? And what would it have done? Eat us?"

"Leshis are woodland shape-shifters that imitate people known to their victims in order to lure them back to their lairs," Warren explained. "It would have tickled us to death."

Seth laughed. "I'm sorry – _tickled?_ As in... ha ha ha? _Are you serious?_"

"To either death or the point of insanity, yes."

"You've got to be kidding me. The tickle monster is actually real? Not just some thing parents made up to be silly with their kids? And the way to get away from it is to wear your clothes inside-out and backwards? What kind of a joke _is_ that?"

"It does sound ridiculous at first," Bracken agreed. "It's the truth, though. Picture being tickled past the point where you lose the ability to breathe – you'd wind up suffocating."

"You're saying it's actually possible to die laughing?"

Bracken shrugged. "It's happened before."

"Why would anything want to tickle someone to death? Do they eat the dead bodies too or something?"

"Why do naiads drown people? Same thing," Warren answered. "Fleeting amusement, probably."

"You can put everything back on correctly now," Bracken said. "We've passed the boundaries."

Seth didn't ask him how he could tell – Bracken had explained before that he could sense shifts in the surrounding magic which indicated different portions of the preserve. Instead, the boy plopped down next to the unicorn on a nearby rock for stability to switch his boots back around.

...And perhaps to pester said unicorn a little more.

"So you're in love with my sister, huh?" Seth asked, elbowing Bracken in the arm and winking.

"Seth! Cut the man a break!" Warren exclaimed at the same time that Bracken sighed exasperatedly.

"Okay," Seth answered, a satisfied smile on his face. "I approve. Just make sure she knows you two have a 'thing' before she goes off to school. I don't want her to bring Joe Schmoe home from school at Christmas time."

"Joe Schmoe? Who is that?" Bracken asked, looking slightly puzzled.

"Uh... it's a figure of speech. Not a specific person. I guess you've not heard that one before," Seth answered, scratching the back of his head.

"I see what's going on," Warren stated, standing up. "Bracken, our buddy Seth here is trying to tell you that he wants you as his brother-in-law and that he'll be upset if Kendra winds up dating some random guy she picks up at school."

"I definitely don't think Kendra is ready for marriage," Bracken said, his eyes wide. "You really believe she'd run off to university and marry the first man who crosses her path?"

Seth shrugged. "Probably not. But if there's a particular guy hanging around her every day and she isn't tied to someone else already, who knows? I'd imagine it's hard to be in a relationship if you're the only one in it, which is kind of what you two have got going on right now."

"That doesn't sound like her," Bracken disagreed, "but I hear what you're saying. She's still very young – she needs to experience more of life before I do anything about my feelings toward her. If that includes dating other men, then so be it."

"_Fine_," Seth said, standing up at the same time as Bracken. _I'd better not end up with some random guy for a brother-in-law,_ he thought.

_I would fight for her_, Bracken replied. _Ultimately it _is_ her decision, though_. _ I'm glad to hear that you're on my side; that means a lot to me._

The trio traveled onward in their quest to map a little more of the preserve in relative silence for several minutes until Seth spoke up again.

"So... would you rather always have to wear ear muffs or a nose plug?"

"Ear muffs," Bracken and Warren both said simultaneously.

* * *

Not my favorite chapter, but I had fun with the concept. I do not pretend to know everything about leshis – I did minor research online and just thought it'd be fun to write something simple with one in it.

How do you feel about Warren and Vanessa? Do you really, honestly think they'd be able to make it as a couple? I'm inclined to say probably not. Let me know what you think. ;)


	11. Graduation

Sorry for the delay. My writing time has been cut in less than half lately. I'm managing to make it work; it's mostly the typing up that I have a hard time finding time to do.

A couple of questions from a recent reviewer addressed two primary things that I have been taking very, very seriously. ;) First off, Seth's personality – yes, I do believe he'd be different after the whole Zzyzx fiasco. I do keep in mind that he was still only 13 years old when that happened – in my translation of Seth, that equals a much wiser child than you'd normally find in a 13-year-old boy. However, I don't think his fun-loving spirit would die in exchange for wisdom gained (as witnessed at the end of book 5 when they're having the celebratory dinner). Basically, I'm planning to continue developing his character through future chapters. His goal in life is pretty much to be just like Patton, from what I gleaned from the books.

The second question had to do with Bracken. I picture him as the "fearless leader" when necessity dictates and the guy who remains cool and collected when everything is falling to pieces, but when things are calm I see him as a pretty relaxed and cheerful guy who's kind of a loner and trying to get over that. (He describes himself as such a couple of times in book 5.) He _was_ awkward with Kendra at times in the book, especially when they first met – which I thought was funny. I'm trying to develop his character, too – he's learning more about socialization and human characteristics/personality traits as he spends more and more time with the Sorensons, which in turn makes him more comfortable/conversational around other humans he meets and talks to (as will be shown in future chapters). I also see him as honest to the core – he won't give compliments insincerely, doesn't lie or try to mislead people, and speaks from the heart. Last but not least, he's immortal so pretty much the only real sense of time the guy has is watching the humans around him age and seeing the earth change in general.

Thank you all for your feedback. I especially love the comments that make me think, like the one I addressed above. Now onto the next chapter, in which the satyrs _finally_ make an appearance!

* * *

**Chapter 11: Graduation**

"Seth! Give the ball back – it was safe!" Verl called.

"The right word is '_in_,' Verl. 'Safe' is for _baseball_," Newell said, rolling his eyes.

"I think we should let our referee decide," Doren added. "Dale!" the satyr called.

Dale looked up from the book he was reading on the porch and said, "That was in."

"You haven't even been watching the game," Newel argued. "It was out!"

"The referee exists for a reason," Grandpa Sorenson chided while he flipped over a couple of hamburgers on the grill.

"Right," Dale agreed. "And I say the ball was in. Toss it back, Seth."

Seth was grinning as he tossed the volleyball over to the other side of the net, where Kendra caught it.

Newel, Doren and Seth were in the backyard playing volleyball against Kendra and Bracken. And since Bracken's reflexes were "crazy good," as the satyrs had pointed out not very tactfully, Bracken and Kendra had also adopted Verl on their team "to equalize things" – again, not pointed out very tactfully. Warren had set up the net earlier that day and the whole family was having a barbeque party to celebrate Kendra's graduation from high school.

"8 – 4," Kendra called out the score before she served the ball to the opposing team. It headed straight for Doren, who struck it. Newel reached up and pushed it slightly, and Seth jumped up in an attempt to spike it to the ground back on the other side of the net. Bracken dove and saved the ball, and then Verl shot it back over the net again.

The ball volleyed back and forth a few times until both Newel and Doren dove for it and wound up hitting each other instead of their intended target, which bounced harmlessly off of them and landed out of bounds.

"What the heck, Doren!?" Newel shouted, rubbing his head.

"Me?! _You're_ the one who shouldn't have tried for it! The ball was in _my_ section!" Doren retorted.

"It was in the middle and you didn't call it, so I decided to go!"

"_I_ didn't call it!? _You_ could have called it!"

"Technically," Bracken chimed in, "if the ball was in the middle, it would have been Seth's responsibility."

The arguing satyrs turned to glare at Seth.

"Whoa, guys. What was _I_ supposed to do? Join you in the dog pile? No thanks," the boy responded, holding his hand out in front of him in an attempt to placate them.

"You're ruining fair Kendra's party!" Verl called out from the other side of the net, gesturing to the girl who had wandered over to a nearby rose bush to sniff some of the bright yellow flowers. She looked up when she heard her name.

"Shut up, Verl! We don't want to hear about your unreasonable crush!" Newel shouted.

Verl blushed brilliantly as Kendra interjected. "It's okay, I wanted a break anyway," she said, standing up to full height and moving toward her dad.

"If you leave, you forfeit!" Doren called.

"Forfeiting would be more fun than listening to you two squabble like an old married couple!" Kendra called back with a teasing expression on her face. She was smiling widely as she stood next to her father and Scott placed his own arm around her shoulder.

"We win!" Newel and Doren high-fived each other before breaking down into a victory dance.

Bracken laughed. "By technicality," he said.

"What's that I hear, Newel?" Doren asked, cupping his hand around one ear.

Newel looked mockingly perplexed. "I don't know, Doren. What _did_ you hear?" he asked.

"I could have sworn I heard that unicorn we defeated in an epic game of volleyball crying that things weren't fair!"

Newel started to laugh as Seth responded with an arched eyebrow, "He didn't say that."

"What are you complaining about? Your team _won_!" Doren admonished.

"Only because Kendra left," Seth said. "Face it, guys – we were getting creamed."

"We were _not_ 'getting creamed,'" Newel corrected, pantomiming quotes in the air with his fingers.

"Buzz kill," Doren fake coughed into his fist.

Seth smiled and tossed the ball to Verl. "You guys can keep playing if you want," he said. "I'm going to check on the food."

"I'll go with you," Bracken said to Seth.

Verl visibly paled as Newel and Doren's faces took on evil glints – they were obviously planning to grind Verl into the ground.

"I think I'll go… see what the fairies are up to," Verl lamely thought up. He dropped the ball and took off running, despite the loud protests of the other two satyrs.

Seth walked over to the table that would soon be adorned with grilled meats, side dishes and condiments and sat down where he could see Kendra, Dad and Grandpa Sorenson standing around the barbeque. Bracken took the seat next to him and asked, "What's bothering you?"

"Who said anything was bothering me?" Seth replied, continuing to stare ahead with a muted smile on his face.

Bracken leaned back a little and said, "It doesn't take a genius."

Seth went quiet for a while, so Bracken relaxed and took in his surroundings. Newel and Doren were playing volleyball against each other – well, more like arguing instead of playing – while Dale continued reading and still pretending to referee. Verl had disappeared somewhere into the woods. Stan, Scott and the beautiful radiance that was Kendra idly chatted around the grill. He could tell that she loved her father. It was obvious – she and Scott were standing next to each other with her arm around his waist, head on his shoulder, and his arm around both of his daughter's shoulders.

The unicorn fidgeted a little with his hands as he remembered his own conversation earlier in the day with Kendra's parents. After that, he was really pretty confident that Scott hated him, no matter how Marla had tried to assure him otherwise.

Well, at least Kendra's mother seemed to like him.

Seth cleared his throat and Bracken's attention refocused onto the teenaged boy. "I'm going to miss her," the boy stated simply. "By the way, your ogling of my sister is really obvious."

Bracken hadn't expected that last comment. His eyes widened as he tried to brush it off. "I was not '_ogling'_ her," he stated quietly, trying not to draw attention to the two of them.

"Uh… yeah you were," Seth responded. "Unless you can think of another word that means 'to stare at someone and fantasize about them in a really creepy way.'"

"I wasn't fantasizing about her," Bracken again muttered. "For the record, I was trying to think of ways to get your father to approve of me."

"He does," Seth said plainly. "He doesn't _love_ you, but it would take a miracle for that to happen. Kendra is a daddy's girl."

Bracken decided to re-direct the conversation back to Seth. "You're going to miss her?" he asked in a prompting fashion.

"Nice transition," Seth replied, rolling his eyes. "Of course I'll miss her. I didn't ever really think she'd actually leave. Those were stupid thoughts, I guess."

"It's not stupid to enjoy the moment," Bracken said. "It is limiting to fear change, though."

"I just said I'll miss her. Not that I'm afraid of change," Seth clarified. "She _should_ go. I _want_ her to go. But I'll miss goofing off in the pool and making faces at her while she's trying to concentrate on something and… I think I'll even miss the way she talks in her sleep in the middle of the night." His eyes were wide as though he just realized that last part.

"She's not leaving for school for six more weeks," Bracken said. "And she'll be back to visit during breaks."

"It won't be the same," Seth responded, staring at a nearby wind chime that one of the fairies was tapping on.

"That's the point," Bracken said. "It's hard for things to change and yet remain the same."

Seth blinked. "Thank you, Captain Obvious," he answered. "You're terrible at giving advice, by the way."

Bracken chuckled. "I advise you to spend time with her while she's still here. Do brother things that annoy her, but that she secretly enjoys. And while she's away, pick up the phone every once-in-a-while to talk to her." He paused, then cocked his head to the side. "You can't tell me that was bad advice."

"No," Seth answered. "I guess not."

Marla exited the house at that point and stood on the porch. "How much more time on the meat, Stan?" she called out.

"It's done," he answered. "The kabobs are cooking. You've got maybe a few minutes to go on those."

"Excellent," she said, clapping her hands together. She turned her head to the left and found Bracken and Seth staring back at her. "And look, I found a couple of pack horses! Boys, if you would please bring things from the kitchen outside and put them right at that table, I would appreciate it." Her tone of voice was cheerful, but also indicated that non-compliance was not an option.

"Absolutely," Bracken smiled, standing up and walking into the kitchen. Seth followed behind him.

* * *

Kendra sat on the back porch near where Dale had been sitting earlier, with her back against one of the beams that supported the roof. Evening had fallen, and her grandfathers Sorenson and Larsen had managed to find some small fireworks to set off. They were a distance to her left. Looking around, she saw her parents sitting with her grandmothers at the picnic table under the awning on the deck, about twenty feet away from where Stan and Hank were unwrapping and prepping the fireworks. Seth, Newel and Doren (Verl hadn't made another appearance after fleeing the scene earlier) were sitting in lawn chairs on the grass for an "up-close" view. Dad had insisted that they sit at least forty feet away from the large board on the grass where the fireworks would be lit, to which the trio had objected. Dad relented and let them set twenty feet away when Grandpa Sorenson explained that these particular fireworks were going to be relatively small, since he didn't want to scare the creatures on the preserve. As it was, he had already been hesitant to light them – but in honor of Kendra's achievement and pending departure, he'd approved when Hank had insisted.

Kendra spotted Dale, Vanessa and Warren sitting next to each other on the porch quite a ways away from herself. Warren and Vanessa were holding hands and quietly chatting with Dale. She was happy to see Warren and Vanessa back together; they'd had an argument a couple days ago about something apparently serious that she'd not heard.

Bracken approached Kendra from the lawn and asked, "Why are you so far away from everyone else?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "This looked like a good place," she answered. "Want to sit with me?"

"Of course," he said, walking up the steps and settling down to her left. "I warned the fairies about the fireworks," he explained. "We'll see if they decide to stick around and watch or not."

"Good thinking," Kendra commented. "How did you explain what they were, anyway?"

"I told them it'd be colorful fire shooting up from the ground and falling from the sky. A few of them looked mildly terrified at that." He chuckled softly. "Some of them might choose to interact with the lit ones."

Kendra remembered the first time she'd seen the fairies when bubbles were around and her eyes widened. "That could be really cool," she said, obviously interested.

"Yes," he answered. "You never know what they'll do." He leaned back and casually took hold of Kendra's hand. "I have something else I want to talk to you about," he said, looking into her eyes.

"Sure?" she asked, curious about what he wanted.

"I think this is an excellent choice for you to make," he began. "You will do well at the university."

"Oh," she answered. "Thanks."

"A selfish part of me doesn't want you to leave," he admitted. "I enjoy being able to see you often, and that will change. But that's not the point I wanted to express." He paused for a quick breath before continuing. "Would you be willing to go on a date with me?" he asked.

Kendra's face flushed brilliantly – a sudden rush of gratitude for the night's darkness hit her – and she responded with a dazzling smile and an emphatic, "Yes! Of course!"

He grinned widely as well. "Excellent," he answered. "How about tomorrow?"

"Wow, um… Alright, tomorrow would be great!" Kendra played with a strand of her hair, wrapping it around her finger in a nervous gesture as she shouted at herself internally to remain calm. "Did you have anything particular in mind?" Her face was still burning, and her inner voice was still shouting at her to play it cool.

"Yes," he said. "I saw an advertisement in your father's newspaper for the county fair. It looked like fun – would you like to go?"

"The county fair, huh?" she asked, her entire countenance still gleaming with enthusiasm. Her voice remained at least somewhat level, though. "I haven't been to one since I was six or seven. I'd love to!"

"Well then, good. It's a date," he responded, still beaming as he continued to hold her hand and scooted closer to her.

Sparks seemed to fly through Kendra at Bracken's touch and proximity. She didn't fully understand – they'd held hands and cuddled before. What was so different now?

Then again, she supposed, something _was_ different this time. A whole new dynamic was being introduced to their friendship. A very, very exciting one.

She couldn't seem to focus on anything else, even when Grandpa Sorenson lit the first firework and a shower of purple sparks shot up several feet into the air as a few curious fairies left their hiding places and wandered closer for a better view.

Kendra Sorenson had a date tomorrow. One that she was very much looking forward to.


	12. Sushi

Beware of fluff overload.

Additional disclaimer: I don't own Charlie the Unicorn. ;)

* * *

**Chapter 12: Sushi**

Kendra was laughing so hard that she was trying to keep from snorting. This day had been full of "firsts" for Bracken, and this particular one was pretty hilarious in her opinion. Perhaps her strong reaction was the result of a mixture of tremendous nervousness, an excess amount of sugar, the fun atmosphere of the county fair, and the sight of the boy she fancied with a ridiculous look on his face.

On the way to the fair, Bracken told Kendra that he'd never actually been to one before. Kendra was surprised at first, but then thought better – he'd been stuck in a Turkish prison for years, after all. Maybe even hundreds of years. It's not like the Sphinx would have randomly let him out for a day-long rendezvous to America to experience a fair of all things. So instead of being surprised, she'd grinned and gripped the steering wheel of the car a little tighter as she said, "Well then, you're going to get the full introduction. One rule – you have to try whatever I throw at you."

"So long as whatever you throw at me doesn't wind up decapitating me, I think I can agree to those terms." There was definite teasing in his voice.

"I doubt I could ever decapitate you even if I wanted to," Kendra responded, still smiling cheerfully.

"Well then I don't have anything to worry about, do I?"

"Just a sugar high and some silly human kid stuff," she agreed.

So far she'd introduced him to the giant slide, the tilt-a-whirl, a small roller coaster, bumper cars, and the carousel – he'd quickly tried to sit on the sole purple horse out of all the different colored horses to choose from, but gave it up with a sheepish grin to a demanding four-year-old girl as Kendra had giggled at the whole situation. His eyes had been the size of dinner plates when he saw a stand that advertised elephant ears and he relaxed at Kendra's reassurances that no, they did not in fact sell actual ears of elephants but rather fried dough that sort of resembled them. She'd purchased one to share with him, appropriately doused with butter, sugar and cinnamon, and he'd quickly declared that they were amazing. "Just wait until you try a funnel cake," Kendra had insisted.

They had just finished getting their faces painted. Kendra had opted for an elegant butterfly look that was purple and blue and had glitter in it. The butterfly design covered the top left third of her face. She'd been willing to let Bracken sit that one out, but he decided to give it a shot. "It'll be a nice contrast to war paint," he said before he sat down and selected the picture he'd like painted on his face while Kendra closed her eyes to allow the woman painting her face to color her eyelid. Both of their faces were done at about the same time and when Kendra turned to look at Bracken, she'd erupted into laughter as they walked away. He'd apparently gone the funny, childish route and had opted for what looked like a mountain with a rainbow curved over the top of it, lollipops sprouting out of the sides of the mountain itself.

"What's so funny?" he asked, smiling at Kendra's obvious mirth.

"It's Candy Mountain, Charlie!" she managed to choke out, still continuing to crack up.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he responded, but the way he said it made it sound like he might have understood the reference Kendra had made, which just made her laugh even more.

"Was that _sarcasm_ I just heard?" she eventually asked through a stream of giggles.

"Oh no, I'm _always_ serious," Bracken answered happily, taking hold of her hand. "Especially when I'm on a date with a pretty girl."

"You _have_ seen that video, right? _Charlie the Unicorn_?"

"Yes. Seth showed me a while ago. It was quite inaccurate, but I had to admit it was funny."

"You know the best part about this?" Kendra asked, her face still shining with recent laughter. "All of these strange people who are staring at us, even the ones who have watched the cartoon, have absolutely no idea just how funny that is. It's our joke."

They walked along for a couple of minutes until Bracken surprised Kendra by suddenly pulling her in the direction of the game booths. "We have to look at these," he insisted. She smiled in return and said, "They're scams, but alright."

He looked at her quizzically and said, "I'm pretty sure I can beat these. I've seen them on television before. They don't look that difficult."

Her inner voice agreed with him – he'd probably be able to win all of the prizes if he wanted, no matter what the game was. "Don't bankrupt the poor game owners," she teased.

"Don't worry, I'm only planning to get that giant stuffed clownfish," he answered as he made a beeline for the challenge the fish was hanging from the top of. It was one of the traditional games that could be found at any carnival; milk bottles were stacked on top of each other about fifteen feet away from the front of the booth, which was where people could stand and throw baseballs in an attempt to knock down the stacked bottles. "Neither of us have any use for a pile of toys, after all." Kendra smiled and rolled her eyes at his confidence.

Well, he wasn't confident without reason.

Five minutes later, Kendra was in possession of a four foot long, almost two foot wide stuffed orange clownfish. The bored gamekeeper had been skeptical about Bracken's aiming skill, but quickly grabbed the fish and handed it to him once the unicorn had demonstrated his ability to knock over all of the milk bottles in the booth, no matter how far away he was or what angle he approached them at.

"See? That wasn't so bad," Bracken smiled as he once again grasped Kendra's spare hand and they started walking back to the car so she could deposit the fish.

"Did you see his face? He totally wasn't expecting you to be able to do that," Kendra grinned. "What made you choose the fish, anyway?"

"It seemed odd enough to suit your liking," he answered. "I also like the bright orange color. It's happy."

She laughed. "Well, thanks. I think I'll name him… Sushi."

"Sushi?" he asked, raising his eyebrows as they continued to walk. "Really? Why?"

"Because it seems odd enough to suit your liking," she answered quickly.

"I get that you're mocking me, but I'm not quite making the connection. I don't eat sushi."

She just smiled and gave him a hug from the side then said, "I know. And thank you."

"You already said that," he responded happily.

"I meant to say thank you for being you."

He smiled. "Well if me being me continues to secure affection from you, I think I'll keep doing that."

"It's not healthy to be someone just to make someone else happy," she suddenly pulled back and raised her finger in the air, taking on the attitude of a teacher or a parent.

"What if making you happy is what makes me happy?"

"My mother didn't cover that one," Kendra said, lowering her finger and grasping his hand again as the unicorn chuckled.

She decided to act on her spontaneous whim and kissed him on the cheek – the unpainted one – then quickly released his hand and ran the rest of the way to the car, which wasn't far. He chased after her and met her there, where he greeted her with a huge smile as she ducked her head inside the door to the back seat to put the giant fish down.

When she emerged from the car, her cheeks were tinged pink as her eyes met his. He took hold of both of her hands and pulled her in for a close embrace. "Thank you for being you as well," he quietly said as he breathed in the smell of her shampoo. After a moment, he released her and again grasped her hand instead as he pulled her back toward the fairgrounds.

"Don't let me forget – I need to bring some cotton candy home for Seth," Kendra said as they drew close to a concession stand.

"Cotton candy? Is it really cotton?" Bracken asked, scrunching up his nose.

"It's flavored sugar that's been spun to look like cotton," Kendra explained. "We'll get two bundles of it, one for Seth and the other one for you to try out."

Bracken shook his head softly. "I'm amazed with the things people have thought to invent."

"I'm pretty sure cotton candy doesn't rank anywhere on the list of Top 100 Inventions of the 20th Century."

"You're probably right, but that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to appreciate just how far humankind has progressed in the past couple of centuries." His face took on a more sober expression, although Kendra could sense he was still cheerful. "I missed a lot, and apparently all at once."

She bit her lip as she debated whether or not to finally ask one of the questions she'd been itching to ask him for a long time. Deciding to go for it, she started, "I normally avoid asking you about this…"

He looked at her questioningly as she trailed off. "About what?"

"About… Living Mirage," she hinted, warily eying the people around them, making sure none of them were focusing on her and her date.

"Ah," he answered. "You don't have to avoid asking me about that if you want to know something. It's a part of my past and, in the grand scheme of things, a very small part. I don't mind talking about it."

"Really? I thought it might be a sensitive subject." Her tone of voice held a little skepticism in it, as though she didn't fully believe him.

"Even if it is, you of all people have a right to ask." Still holding her hand, he cut through the crowd and led her to a bench to sit down.

"What do you want to know?" he prompted once they'd settled down for the moment.

"How long were you there?" she asked. "Sometimes I think 50 years, and sometimes I think more like 300."

"That's hard for me to answer, because I hadn't really been paying attention to the human calendar before I was captured," he began. "I'd spent a lot of time in the fairy realm before I went to Living Mirage to investigate the sealed shrine, and traveling from an immortal world to a mortal one is a little mind-altering after having spent as long with the Queen as I had been at that point. There is no real sense of time in her kingdom; every being that dwells there is of an immortal nature. Very few changes occur there – it's almost like nothing is ever fully _real_. Existence itself is experienced very differently by immortal beings in an immortal realm than by humans in a mortal one. Your lives are exciting in comparison, in a lot of different ways.

"I digress, though; to my best guess, I'd estimate it was the mid-1700's when I was captured and imprisoned."

Kendra's eyes widened. She grasped his hand tightly as a wave of empathy washed over her. "Bracken… that's a long time to spend in the dark," she said. "How on earth did you cope?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "What else was I going to do? It was the most difficult trial I've faced in my life. I would prefer to repeat the opening of Zzyzx rather than experience those years again. I craved sunlight, longed to swim in the ocean, hoped beyond hope that I could disappear and somehow find myself running at top speed through an immense, grassy field. I deeply desired the presence of my family.

"I tried to befriend many of the occupants that inhabited the various cells. I led a couple of escape attempts – unsuccessful ones, of course. Ultimately, the friends I made either wound up being relocated elsewhere or were mortal and passed away as the years ticked by.

"I had many moments of mourning. There was a lot to grieve. It was hard to hang on to any hope that I might eventually be released. Slowly, after I'd been there for decades, I came to the understanding that I had to adapt or I'd lose my mind. I tried to find beauty in my surroundings – that was a feat to accomplish – and I forced myself to continue forging friendships, even if they were humans or other mortal beings and I knew they would eventually die. I clung to the idea that I would be released at some point in the future, and I didn't want my time there to diminish my spirit."

He stopped talking as he realized that Kendra's eyes were watering. "Oh no," he said, his expression shifting as his relaxed stance turned slightly tense. "Today is supposed to be a happy day. No tears," he insisted, pulling her toward him to embrace her again.

"No, this is good," Kendra insisted. "It's good for you to talk about it. I feel like I'm getting to know you a little better."

He chuckled. "You know me pretty well already," he stated.

"Well… yeah, I'd like to think so, but your past is still mostly a big question mark to me. There's so much more about you that I want to know." She wiped her eyes and sat up straight.

"How about this," Bracken began, "Let's get back up and continue walking around the park, maybe buy some lunch, and you can ask me whatever questions you want – so long as they're ones that won't prompt depressing discussion." She agreed, and they deserted the bench. "I get to ask you questions too, though," he added as they sauntered aimlessly amid the sea of people. "After all, there's much about your own past that I don't know."

"I get the feeling that there's a whole lot more to your past than there is to mine," she stated.

"That doesn't mean yours is any less interesting," he insisted.

"Alright, you have a deal," she answered. "I'll go first."

"You already went first," he said as he smiled.

"Your new terms were introduced too late," she said, beginning to smile again herself. "I'll make it an easy one. What's your favorite color?" she asked.

He laughed. "Green," he replied. "Yours?"

"Blue. Favorite place in the world?"

"That one isn't easy," he protested. "There are a lot of beautiful places on the earth."

"Okay then, pick one of your favorites and tell me why you like it so much."

He thought for a moment and then responded, "Japan."

"I said a _place_, not a whole country."

"Japan _is_ a place," he said. "More specifically, I think their gardens, temples and shrines are some of the most peaceful places to go on earth."

"That's still cheating," she said.

"I gave you an answer, and now you get to give me an answer," he teased. "How did you meet Raxtus?"

Kendra bit her lip. "That's a really long story, and a lot about it is not very happy."

"Okay then, I'll put that one back on the shelf for another day. Let's switch gears. How did you find out about my world? And when I say 'my world,' I mean my general world of whimsy and not the Queen's realm."

"That's a much better question. I was thirteen, Seth was eleven. Our Grandparents Larsen had passed away, or so everyone thought…"

* * *

Evening had fallen, and the view of the carnival lights from the top of the Ferris wheel was intoxicating. Kendra rested her head on Bracken's shoulder as the car they sat in rocked slowly back and forth. He put his arm around her and smiled happily at her and their surroundings.

Through their questioning earlier, Kendra learned that Bracken was the oldest of the 5 children he had mentioned forever ago on a cursed island far away. She had assumed as much, but was glad to have her suspicions confirmed. His sisters' names were Coral, Fern, Petal and Nova – she hadn't known that yet. In return, he'd learned that Kendra's favorite extracurricular activity back when she'd attended public school had been volunteering at the daycare (the one she'd eventually been abducted from, however she left that part out). They'd exchanged a lot of simple facts about themselves and as Kendra sat with Bracken in the deepening darkness and reflected on their conversations from the day, she realized she was starting to feel more for Bracken than a simple crush. The thought both excited and terrified her as she wondered if he reciprocated, and then conflicting thoughts started to play through her brain as she pondered whether this was a wise path to travel. There were so many differences between them – how could they ever get past those differences? Surely it would be easier to meet another human and venture down this road with that man rather than this one.

But was easier necessarily better?

'_Stop it, you're only seventeen. You've got a long time to figure that one out,'_ Kendra mentally berated herself.

'_Well… almost eighteen, actually,'_ she added a moment later.

'_Oh, like that makes a huge difference.'_

'_Maybe. Maybe not.'_

"Today has been wonderful," Bracken interrupted her thought processes. She snuggled further into his side and responded, "Yes, it has been. Thank you for… all of it."

"You're the one who drove us here," he answered.

"That's beside the point," she replied flatly.

He smirked. "Thank you for agreeing to come with me."

"I get the feeling we could get stuck in an endless circle of thanks very shortly here," she teased.

"Probably," he cheerfully answered. "I'll take that as a sign that the day went well for both of us and not just me."

Kendra let out a contented sigh. Bracken responded to that by kissing her forehead. She looked up at him in mild surprise, and her heart leapt into her throat when he smiled and leaned back down to softly kiss her lips.

Forget about easier… this man was _definitely_ better.

* * *

Okay, I think that's enough fluff for now. *gushes*

And no, they're not going to rush off into the sunset and elope or anything crazy like that. ;)

You guys… I can't believe I've written over 30,000 words. WOW. When I first thought about writing this story, I pictured something… much smaller. Hahaha. I like where this has gone for the most part, though.

Once again, thank you for reading. Your comments are greatly appreciated, as are your favorites and follows. Thanks!


	13. Thanksgiving

Sorry for the delay! A lot of your various suggestions were things I'd honestly already planned to incorporate into this story in future chapters. So, yes – a lot of you will see your ideas coming into play soon! Good guesses!

* * *

**Chapter 13: Thanksgiving**

Warren opened the door for Kendra and they both hurried inside the house, away from the falling snow that was steadily accumulating in large piles all over the front yard. "Hello? Everyone? I'm home!" Kendra called out. She heard an excited yelp from the hallway and was quickly met with a warm hug from her mother.

"Kendra's home!" Marla yelled, and soon there was a swarm of people surrounding the young woman. She received embraces from her grandparents and Dad. When she turned to greet Seth, her jaw dropped.

He had grown. A _lot_. He was easily a foot taller than her now; where she'd been able to see his chin at eye level before she'd left for school, she was now eye level with his clavicle.

"Hey, Sis," Seth said, fist-bumping her shoulder.

"What the heck happened to you!?" Kendra cried. "I go away for a few months and all of a sudden you're gigantic and your voice has dropped like five octaves! Who said you could do that!?"

Seth grinned as the rest of their family laughed lightheartedly. "Did you hear that?" he asked, looking around at everyone. "She just called me a man." He puffed out his chest with pride.

"Uh-huh, sure… whatever, you tall, immature weirdo." She hugged him tightly as he said, "That sounds more like my short, bossy sister." Kendra punched him softly in his side for that remark, and he good-naturedly feigned injury.

"It's like she never left," Marla sighed happily, leaning against her husband. "Our family is back together again."

"As fun as it is to stand around in the doorway, can we move this reunion somewhere more comfortable? I, for one, would like a warm cup of tea," Warren said after he'd removed his coat and hung it up. "That was a decently long drive, after all."

"Absolutely," Ruth agreed, wrapping one arm around Kendra and leading her through the kitchen and into the dining room. "Tell me about school. Do you like it? How are your classes? What's it like?" she asked her granddaughter.

Kendra chuckled. "It's like we haven't had weekly phone conversations," she said. "Everything's the same as last week – classes are great but tough, and I'm glad to be getting the full college experience even if the girls in the dorm room next to ours like to blast their music a little too loud."

"How's your roommate doing?" Marla asked, sitting down at the dining room table to Kendra's right.

Warren wandered into the kitchen and asked, "Anyone else want some tea?" No one spoke up, so he shrugged his shoulders and continued bustling about the cupboards.

"Julie's doing well," Kendra replied. "She said her classes are starting to get complicated. Something about ionizations and some quantitative analysis or other… I didn't really have the time for her to explain it to me, since I'm busy with my own workload. But we're turning out to be pretty good friends. I think you'd like her."

"She's majoring in physics, right?" Scott asked.

"Yes. Right now she's mostly taking a bunch of chemistry and math classes, but we both also have a bunch of general classes to get through as well."

"Are you having any trouble with your name?" Grandpa Sorenson asked.

Kendra had had to assume another identity in order to attend school, since "Kendra Sorenson" was legally dead and buried. It would have raised too many questions both on a personal and federal level if she were to suddenly turn up alive after having been confirmed deceased by the county coroner where she'd grown up. That and, if things did wind up working out with Bracken for the long run (or even if they didn't), she might want to try and become an Eternal – it would be extremely helpful to have a false grave if that ever happened. So she'd worked with her Grandparents Sorenson and Larsen to craft another persona for herself – Kayla McPherson – who had legal, recorded documentation depicting her birth, former addresses she'd lived at and phone numbers she'd been associated with previously, as well as the names of the schools she'd attended in the past. All of the information was false of course, but "being part of the Knights of the Dawn is very useful when creating or erasing your personal history," Vanessa had pointed out. "Eyes and ears all over the place."

"Yes and no," she responded. "'Kayla' is close enough to 'Kendra' for me to want to respond to whoever is trying to talk to me anyway. The last name is worse. 'McPherson' doesn't really sound much like 'Sorenson.' I've had two near-mistakes so far when professors have called out my last name instead of my first and I just sat there wondering why 'McPherson' didn't stand up… until I remembered that was me."

"But you haven't slipped up and told people your true name?" Grandpa Sorenson leaned forward and asked again.

"No," Kendra insisted. "I've been careful."

"Take it easy," Ruth reprimanded, lightly shoving Stan. "You're talking to your most responsible grandchild here. Give her some trust."

"Hey!" Seth protested. Kendra thought it sounded kind of funny to hear a childish remark like that spoken in such a deep voice. "I'm responsible, too!"

"Sorry, Seth," Ruth apologized. "That was poorly phrased. You've been doing very well with your duties."

He stuck his nose up in the air as though offended. "Thank you for noticing," he stated.

"Seth has taken on a couple of the daily tasks that Dale has primarily been in charge of around the preserve," Grandma Larsen explained.

"Really?" Kendra asked. "Like what?"

"I set the milk out for the fairies every morning," Seth began. "They're starting to like me again. I think. At least they don't glare at me anymore."

"He also shuttles Viola's milk to a few of the other milder areas of the preserve," Grandpa Sorenson said. "He's starting out small, but will work his way up." There was a special gleam in her grandfather's eyes as he smiled at Seth. He was obviously pleased with his grandson.

Dad opened his mouth presumably to say something, but was interrupted by a sudden, "Kendra!"

Everyone at the table looked around at each other, wondering who had called her name. It sounded a little distant or muffled. "Kendra – come outside! I'm out here!" they heard again.

Grandpa Larsen winked at his granddaughter while the women in the room smiled and Scott's expression soured as he muttered, "Can't he wait until _after_ we've finished saying hello?"

Kendra smiled brilliantly as she recognized that particular voice, then jumped up and walked energetically to the back door. She opened it up and saw Bracken standing in the yard near the birdbath, which had frozen over from the cold. The unicorn was dressed in jeans and a stylish pea coat, with a bright red scarf around his neck and an equally brilliant smile on his face as he spotted her. She ran toward him and slipped on the last step off the porch, bracing herself for a hard fall at the same time that Bracken ran forward and sort-of caught her – they both wound up slipping on the slick stones of the sidewalk and landed in a pile of snow to the side of the pathway. Kendra broke into giggles and Bracken laughed as well as he pushed himself up and then grabbed hold of her hand to pull her into a standing position as well.

When they were both upright again, she threw her arms around his neck and he kissed her lightly before pulling back and saying, "I'm only here for a quick visit. I wanted to drop by and give you something."

"You're not staying?" she asked, disappointment creeping into her voice.

He grinned. "We're just about ready to open a sixth shrine. I can't be away for very long – we've got a goal to meet, but I couldn't resist seeing you – it's been a while!" He embraced her again and kissed her on the cheek before pulling a rectangular box out of his pocket and giving it to her. "This is for you," he said. "I thought of you when I saw it."

"You didn't have to buy me a present," Kendra said as she cradled the small box. "It's not even Christmas or anything."

"Does it have to be a holiday for me to give you a gift?" he teased, brushing a stray lock of her hair out of her face. "If it makes you feel better, I didn't buy it. You can consider it a gift from both me and the Fairy Queen."

Her eyes widened dramatically. "What…?" she asked, astonished.

"There's a story behind it. Go on – open it up!" He waved at her hands, which were still just cradling the box.

She reverently lifted the lid and found a silver necklace with a pendant in the shape of a small fairy who wore a peaceful, happy expression on her face. Kendra was amazed by the workmanship of the pendant – it was absolutely stunning.

"Bracken, this is beautiful," she said, practically speechless.

"Let me put it on you," he said, taking the chain from her hands and draping the necklace over her head. The clasp was unusual – more of a delicate knot than the typical clasp she was accustomed to, yet still simple enough to interlock.

_The best part about this,_ she heard Bracken's voice in her head, _is that the pendant is enchanted. We can keep in touch while we're apart. I was kicking myself for not thinking to give you some sort of communicative device before you left. That was an unfortunate oversight on my part._

"I hope you like it," he said aloud. "It suits you."

"It's amazing," she managed to say. "I can't even imagine – where did this _come_ from?"

"It belonged to my mother," Bracken explained. "And now it belongs to you."

Kendra felt like she was going to pass out. "What?" she asked stupidly, obviously dazed.

The young man chuckled. "It's alright to relax, Kendra." He embraced her and said quietly in her ear, "Mother sends her love. She would like to speak with you after the turn of the New Year."

She stiffened at his words and he laughed. "Again, Kendra… it's alright to relax. I did tell you before that she approves of you, remember?"

"…That was before I started dating her son," she squeaked.

"She loves you," Bracken placated. "Probably more than she loves me," he added as an afterthought.

Kendra remembered the rush of pure emotion she'd felt from the Queen as they'd first approached one of her shrines after releasing her son from his long imprisonment and quickly said, "Yeah, I _highly_ doubt that one. As in… you couldn't be more wrong, even if you tried to tell me that snow is purple or the satyrs have decided to give up song and dance."

Bracken laughed again at her examples. "Well, she seems to think the world of you. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. Why are you so nervous, anyway?"

"You're right – I shouldn't be," she answered. "I don't know why I am. She and I parted last on good terms-"

"Excellent terms," he interrupted.

"-alright, fine then, excellent terms," she continued on. "Are you sure she's not weirded out by… us?"

"Definitely not," he answered with a smile on his face. "There's honestly nothing to worry about. You'll be here for the New Year, right?"

"Yes," she answered. "I'll actually be back here the week before Christmas. My first term of school is almost over – just a few more weeks to go. Winter term begins the second week in January."

"That means we'll get to spend more time together very soon," he said. "I'll have to take you on another date during your next visit. Think of somewhere you'd like to go, okay?"

"Alright, it's a deal," she smiled, leaning forward to give him a light peck.

"I have to leave now," he said. _But I'm happy to know that we can at least talk to each other this time!_ his voice sounded in her head again. "I promise I'll be around a lot while you're on break between terms."

He finally released her from their embrace, then turned around and jogged back toward the woods. "See you soon!" he called out.

As she turned around to walk back inside the house, Kendra found her parents, brother and grandparents staring at her through the sole window that didn't have bubbly glass. They all started coughing or making excuses and moving away from the window, trying to pretend that they hadn't been observing the interaction between her and Bracken. She shook her head and blushed a little in reaction to their eavesdropping, making a mental note to be wary of prying eyes during future conversations with the unicorn. As she walked closer to the door, she heard her father whine to her mother, "I thought the necklace I gave her was plenty special. Where does he get off thinking he can just outshine my presents like that, anyway?"

Marla rolled her eyes and walked away from him, leaving Scott to complain to himself.

"Hey!" Scott called out. "The kissing? Are you going to talk to her about that, or am I?"

Marla spun around and poked him in the chest. "You leave her alone," she demanded. "Or else there's someone else in this household who won't be getting kissed."

"Yikes, Dad," Seth interjected. "Mom just pulled out the big guns."

"Hush, you," Scott chided.

* * *

Happy Thanksgiving! Have a safe and happy holiday! As always, thank you for reading. :)


	14. Magic

Your reviews have flattered me beyond belief. All I can say is… thank you so, so much. :) I never thought that my story would ever gain the following it has, and I'm just very happy that people seem to be enjoying what I've been taking the time to write.

This chapter took me quite a while to pen. It's one that has taken me a long time and painstaking research to make sure I tie up loose ends and explain a LOT. Here you go, getting to dive into my head for a bit. ;) Now on to chapter 14, in which we introduce a whole bunch about a ton of stuff.

* * *

**Chapter 14: Magic**

_Thank you for coming_, the Fairy Queen's voice radiated through Kendra's mind. The young woman's senses were overwhelmed with various deep, rich smells of the earth as familiar goose bumps broke out over her skin as a consequence to the stimulation.

_It was no trouble_, Kendra answered. _Bracken mentioned that you wanted to speak with me_.

Conflicting emotions washed over the young woman. Concern, love, confidence and apprehension all seemed to be vying for control. _I am troubled, Kendra Sorenson_, the Queen said. _I have a favor to ask of you_.

The Fairy Queen? Want a favor from her? Eighteen-year-old Kendra? The very idea surprised her – unfortunately, she hadn't yet learned how to mask the thoughts she didn't want to share, as the Queen reminded her by saying, _Not everything is within my own capabilities_.

_I'm sorry_, Kendra responded quickly. _I didn't mean to be disrespectful. Please – tell me what you need._

_My plight concerns my husband, _the Fairy Queen stated. _He has made no improvement since he was recovered on Shoreless Isle. I am deeply concerned for him._ An intense longing such as Kendra had never felt invaded her emotions. _I crave his company again. He is so close, yet he is not whole._

_I lack the strength to bring him out of his catatonia, _she explained. _It is true that it has not been very long since he was rescued, however all of my best healers are mystified. There should have been some sign of recovery by now. Something miniscule, perhaps, but there has been nothing._ Powerful sadness emanated from somewhere deep inside of Kendra, and tears started to spill out of her own eyes in reaction to the intensity of the emotion that was being conveyed to her.

_Yet there is hope,_ the Queen continued. _I have great reason to believe that he is meant to return to me._

Kendra's sight went temporarily black, and shortly thereafter was replaced with a vision of a fairy lying on a soft cushion. The fairy didn't look battered or bruised in any way, but it was clear that there was no energy inside or around it as it laid still as a stone.

_Is that fairy a boy? _Kendra inquired, wide-eyed with shock. She'd never seen a male fairy before.

_Indeed,_ the Queen responded. _I witnessed him transform from an imp back into a fairy several weeks ago. There is a preserve in Finland where my fourth shrine was recently opened, which is where he has been residing. What is particularly amazing about this is that he transformed with no magical assistance from either my sisters or myself._

_How is this possible?_

_When my husband fell, the male fairies also fell – thus the imps were born, _the Queen began. _I have never been able to transform a male imp back into a fairy; that power has escaped me. The fact that one of our brothers has returned is proof, to me, that the King is meant to recover. _A well of hope seemed to spring up inside of Kendra. _Both the fairy and the King are in an inert state. None of my healers have been successful at reviving either of them._

_What can I do?_ Kendra asked. She sensed hesitancy in response.

_My favor is large, _the Queen answered slowly. _I've told you before that you and I draw our power from the same source. I believe that if you and I work together, we can revive my husband. I also believe that if he is revived, the fairy will be as well in consequence. Perhaps more male imps will return as well._

_How can I help?_

_Kendra, it is important that you understand – I do not know if this will work. I hope for it, and I am confident that it will, but I am ultimately unsure. I also must caution you – I do not know what kind of an effect your assistance may have on your person._

The young woman blinked, and the vision of the motionless fairy dissipated. _What should I prepare for?_

_Under no circumstances will I allow you to lose your life,_ the Queen answered. _My conscience would mourn your loss forever. My son would be deeply grieved. Your family would suffer greatly. I do not wish to invoke those consequences._

_However, _the Queen continued, _I feel it important to inform you that on my own, I exhausted my strength in my effort to revive the King. Shortly before I collapsed, I felt that I was close to making a breakthrough of some sort. Not long after I awoke, we found our brother struggling to return to us._

_Have you recovered? _Kendra asked in unease.

Warm affection flooded her mind. _I am whole. Do not fret. I worry for your safety, should you agree to aid me; I will not allow anything lasting to happen to you, but draining your magical energy could cause unforeseen side-effects. I simply do not know for sure._

Kendra hesitated, then said, _We draw our power from the same source? If you don't mind my asking – why do you picture different results if we work together?_

_A valid question. I exhausted my own strength; I did not exhaust the energy of the source, _the Queen responded. _I feel that if we both draw on our energy, we will be able to better access the source and will have a much better chance of success than if we were to go about it separately. I have already demonstrated that the separate approach does not succeed. I also believe we may be able to control the situation better as a team; perhaps the energy will not flee from me so quickly as it did before._

_I can sense your next question, and that one is also valid, _she continued. _The unicorns in my realm do not have quite the same ability to access the deep well of energy that I do. My eldest daughter is the closest; she will be with us, but will not intervene unless necessary._

_Before I conclude my petition, Kendra, I wish to make it clear that I respect your decision. I desire your aid with fervor, but if you are unwilling to assist then I will find another way. I will continuously search until I have discovered a remedy for my husband._

_I am honored that you have been so candid with me, _Kendra started. _I will do what I can. Please – teach me what I must do._

Relief, happiness, nervousness, warm love and quiet peace filled the young woman's body. _Thank you, Kendra Sorenson. I will never forget your kindness._

_You have helped me in the past when I needed it most, _Kendra started. _It only feels right if I try to return your favor. I honestly hope we will be successful._

_As do I, _the Queen responded. _Would you be willing to come to me now?_

_Of course,_ Kendra said. _Are you able to somehow notify my family? I need to make sure they know I am safe._

_Bracken has told your family, per my request. He is coming to retrieve you now. We will wait for him to arrive; he will not be long._

Kendra shifted from a kneeling position to a sitting one in order to get a little more comfortable. It really wasn't long before she saw Bracken's familiar form jogging into view. He truly was too handsome for words – more handsome than anyone deserved, let alone herself.

_For what my opinion is worth_, the Fairy Queen's voice resounded through her mind, _I disagree with part of your belief. He is handsome, _and_ you deserve him._

Cheeks flushed brilliantly, Kendra hid her head in her hands. How could she forget where she was, and that quickly no less!?

_I'm embarrassed_, Kendra thought.

Lighthearted feelings encased the young woman. _There is nothing to be embarrassed about_, she heard. _Love deserves to be celebrated. I can think of no one better for my son._

"I told you she approved of you," Bracken whispered in her ear, causing her to jump with surprise.

"How did you get here so quickly?" she cried out, pressing a hand to her chest in an effort to calm her speeding heart.

Bracken shrugged his shoulders and said, "I have my ways."

_I gave him a talisman_, the Queen inserted herself into their conversation. _With it, he can immediately transport himself over short distances_.

"That too," he said, smiling at Kendra and grabbing hold of her hands to pull her into a standing position. "Kendra, words can't describe our gratitude to you. Especially my mother's gratitude. She has borne a heavy burden by herself for many, many years."

"I will do whatever I can," she answered.

_Your willingness to help speaks volumes about you_, the Queen's voice resounded in Kendra's mind. _Bracken, please help her through. I will open the portal._

"This way," Bracken directed, tugging Kendra by the hand and leading her directly behind the tiny fairy statue. He pulled her close and instructed, "Keep in contact with me. This will be quick."

She buried her face in her boyfriend's chest, nervousness edging into her being.

"I won't let anything happen to you," Bracken told her. "Neither will Mother."

Kendra saw a flash of light that lasted for a few seconds. She felt a gentle tug from some unknown force, trying to pull her apart from Bracken. The feeling didn't last long, and was very much unsuccessful in its feeble attempt to separate them. Before she could register much of anything, the light dissipated and Kendra found herself standing with Bracken at the top of a grassy hill, in front of another tiny fairy statue. The hill itself was a gradual one that eventually sloped into a tropical forest in all directions. The scenery vaguely reminded Kendra of pictures she'd seen of Vietnam in her history books. Various hills similar to the one they stood on peaked their heads out from between the trees. They seemed to be in a gigantic circular pattern.

"Is this really the Fairy Queen's realm?" Kendra asked, wonder in her voice.

"Yes," Bracken replied, watching her face to take in her reaction. "Keep in mind that this realm is nowhere near complete. It will be several hundred – perhaps thousand – years to get it up to par with what the previous realm looked like. Even then, it will not yet be the same; but we have plans to make this one greater than the last one. Much work has been done, and much more still has yet to be done."

"I feel like I'm on some tropical island, except… I don't see an ocean."

Bracken smiled. "Water is a very important influence. You will see a lot of it. Each shrine to the Queen, both here and in your realm, are accompanied by water. The element has magical properties that are easily influenced and augmented by the Queen's energy, which in turn keeps the shrines from becoming inactive or dormant."

Kendra looked at the small fairy statue at their feet, and sure enough there was a small trickle of water bubbling up out of the ground and running down the hill. Overhead, two brilliant red and gold birds flew alongside each other while playfully pecking at each other. "Are those phoenixes?" Kendra asked.

"Yes," Bracken responded. "They came here only a few months ago, and agreed to keep watch over the shrines in exchange for safe passage to and from Mother's realm." He then pointed to the other hills that Kendra had noticed earlier. "Each of these hills is a link to your world, connected to different shrines. The magic that creates the portals to bind each of the mortal shrines to our world is immense and uses a lot of resources. After each shrine is created, there has to be a period of rest before we can resume efforts on another one. We were going to open a sixth shrine, however that particular project has been placed on hold until we can find some sense of anything from my father. He has become our top priority."

Bracken grasped Kendra's hand and led her down the slope, into the trees. "There has been a suggestion that my mother isn't fond of," he began as they walked. "A few of the healers believe that if several unicorns were to draw on the energy of their third horns and attempt to heal my father at the same time, it would draw him out of his current state. My mother and several of the other healers believe that this type of approach would likely kill him – it would be too much, like giving someone an overdose of something good that leads instead to something inadvertently horrible.

"Needless to say, Mother has not allowed anyone to attempt that particular method. A couple of unicorns have tried to heal him on their own, but each time they've exhausted their energy within moments. Mother lasted much longer than any of the others had, but even her strength was quickly drained. Her theory involving you is an interesting one, and the healers are in a consensus that it is worth trying. The risk to my father is believed to be very small, since it wouldn't be the power of multiple third horns attempting to repair him – but rather the concentrated power of one, the one with the greatest depth to it, and the one that he is already tied to."

"I draw my power from your mother's third horn?" Kendra asked, pausing as she walked.

"Yes," Bracken responded. "You have the power of a unicorn – the most powerful unicorn – within you. There is more to it, as well – Mother has a unique bond with nearly all creatures of light, most especially the fairies, and those bonds have been woven into the deep power of her third horn as well as her person. Can you understand why I was so perplexed that you couldn't identify me when we first met? Why becoming fairykind is such a big deal?"

Kendra was clearly feeling overwhelmed. "You can't be serious."

"I wouldn't lie about something like this," Bracken answered. "Actually, I'm a really terrible liar. Always have been."

"Your father is tied to the same horn?" she asked.

He nodded in response. "My mother and father's power was united – to an extent – when they were married. Unicorn marriages are infrequent and very solidly binding."

"I don't understand. How can we all draw from the same place?"

"It takes what you would call 'magic' in order to make it happen. And it's not a normal occurrence, although it's not necessarily rare."

Kendra remembered the shadow plague that had threatened to destroy Fablehaven several years back. Ephira and Kurisock had kind of shared power through Ephira's tree. What Bracken was telling her now sounded similar to that, only with her and the Fairy Queen instead of the spectral hamadryad and the demon. And a whole lot less destructive and, well… dark.

"How am I supposed to use my energy on purpose?" Kendra asked in a small voice as they continued walking. "I don't know how to channel it or trigger anything."

"Mother will guide you." He paused for a moment. "My sister will intervene if necessary."

"What about you?"

"Females have long been more magically powerful than males when it comes to creatures of light," Bracken explained. "That is the first factor that has to be taken into account. The second is that I am not connected to my mother's horn – my sister is beginning to forge a connection, so at least she has a small opportunity to help if needed. The third item to keep in mind is that I don't have use of my own third horn, which limits my abilities greatly."

"You make it sound like you're weak. I don't think you're weak at all," Kendra responded.

He grinned and pulled her into a quick hug, then kept walking. The ground beneath their feet was soft and springy, as though it had never been tread upon before. "I'm not weak," he corrected. "You have access to more power than I do, though."

"That's crazy," she objected. "There's no way I could do all the things you can do."

"Kendra, if you were to live beyond what your human life allows, you would eventually be able to do things I could never achieve."

"The idea that I could eventually kick butt worse than you is insane," she argued.

He laughed. "You always surprise me. I was talking more along the lines of magical prowess rather than physical, but okay." The trees started to thin out, and Bracken pointed to a gap about fifty yards in front of them. "Not much farther. We'll be able to see Mother's home once we break through those trees." He grabbed hold of her hand again, then continued to speak. "I will be with you the entire time we're here. I'm so glad you came with me today, for many reasons. One of which is that now I get to show you off."

She blushed. "Show me off?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?" He winked at her and parted the foliage, then led her through the gap as he held the branches back for her.

The sight she was met with took her breath away. She and Bracken were standing at the top of a cliff that formed a massive, imperfect circle. At the opposite side of the cliff from where they were standing, a river cascaded down the face and created a magnificent, roaring waterfall. The drop was quite long, and the pool the waterfall eventually fell down into was hidden by a veil of mist that rose up from the ground. A distance to Bracken and Kendra's right was a very large, beautiful building made of stone that had been seemingly built into the wall of the cliff. It was also located inside the circle of the protective cliff, however it was mostly situated above where the rising mist from the waterfall could reach. Luscious trees populated the grounds of the building – it wasn't what Kendra would call a castle, yet it was much grander than any house she'd ever seen, both modern and ancient. The leaves were all sorts of fall colors at the moment; vibrant yellows, deep reds, bright oranges.

"This is beautiful," Kendra quietly stated, awe-struck at the sight.

Bracken grinned. "I'm glad you like it," he said. "The fairies and others have worked long and hard on this. They are still working on it. Much is unfinished. Come on, let's go meet Mother."

Kendra followed Bracken as he began the descent down a somewhat crude staircase which was also built into the side of the cliff. The stairs led to the stone building and the wide surrounding grounds. She couldn't believe where she was.

It wasn't long before they came across the first fairies they'd seen since entering the fairy realm. A group of five tiny, delicate ladies appeared to be refining the staircase that Kendra and Bracken were walking down. They stopped working and watched Kendra warily while simultaneously gazing at Bracken with dreamy expressions as the couple walked past them.

"This is Kendra Sorenson, I'm assuming?" a distinguishably female voice asked as they reached the base of the stairs. Kendra turned her head to the right and found a young woman who appeared to be about Bracken's age (however old that was) standing beneath one of the grand trees with red leaves. Her arms were crossed in front of her and she wore a simple yet striking knee-length dress.

"Yes," Bracken answered. "Kendra, this is my youngest sister, Nova." He gestured to the other young woman, who uncrossed her arms and walked forward to kiss Kendra's cheek in greeting.

"Welcome," she said. Her expression remained serious. "You have been the subject of much conversation lately."

"Oh, um… thank you?" Kendra responded, not sure what was appropriate to say in that particular situation.

Nova raised an eyebrow and then looked at her brother like he was crazy, but she grasped Kendra's hand in her own anyway and walked forward. "Mother is this way," she explained.

Kendra wanted to ask Nova questions and learn more about her, but she was hesitant to say anything due to the nature of her visit. She didn't want to make light of the situation.

"That would be appropriate," Nova said aloud, and Kendra once again cursed her inability to remember that unicorns could read thoughts through touch. "You'll learn," Bracken's sister spoke again.

Nova led Kendra through a nearby entryway into the large stone building and Kendra marveled at the beauty inside. Comfortable-looking furniture pieces with intricate wooden designs and plush cushions were expertly set in a warm fashion, creating a relaxed atmosphere. Flowers that Kendra had never seen before seemed to grow from the smooth, glossy floors in artfully arranged places. The walls and ceiling themselves seemed to generate and shed light throughout the rooms they passed – everything in the rooms shone cheerfully.

"Many creatures of light have made homes here," Bracken explained. "Unicorns are the primary inhabitants of this particular building, at least for the time being. There will eventually be many other dwellings in this realm."

"Mother is in there," Nova said, releasing Kendra's hand and motioning her forward, toward a set of double doors. "This is where the healers meet." As Kendra walked forward, she heard the young unicorn say to her brother, "She's alright, but she thinks too much. It's noisy. I don't understand why you're so fond of her."

Bracken chuckled as he accompanied Kendra through the double doors. "Don't mind her," he whispered to Kendra. "Remember, unicorns aren't generally social creatures. Nova is perhaps the most outgoing of my sisters. She hasn't quite learned tact yet, as you can tell."

* * *

I'm going to have to cut it here for now, otherwise I'm going to have an entire novel crammed into one chapter (okay, so that may be a little bit of an exaggeration). I wanted to get this one out before the New Year. :) Have a happy 2015, everybody!

The information regarding the fall of the male fairies was pulled from book 4 – just in case anyone was wondering.

When I think of the fairy realm, I think something along the lines of how Rivendell was portrayed (from Lord of the Rings). Similar to the mortal world, yet somehow otherworldly at the same time. I can't picture the Fairy Queen as living in superb splendor – I see her as a humble leader who is worthy of the ardent admiration of the creatures of light who honor her. A leader like that wouldn't place themselves above their subjects, in my opinion.


	15. Love

Sorry for the slight cliffhanger at the end of the last chapter! I hope this one makes up for it. :) Not everything will be resolved here, but the biggest plot points will be. The others will resolve themselves in the future.

* * *

**Chapter 15: Love**

Kendra stood on the left side of the King, with the Queen on his right side. He was as still as a board, aside from the soft rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. Other than the clean robes he wore, he really didn't look any different than how Kendra remembered him. She reflected on his long years of imprisonment – easily a million times worse than Bracken's had been. It was no wonder he was non-responsive. In the back of her head, she wondered if he was even aware that he was no longer being held captive.

"He is under the influence of a very strong curse," the Queen quietly told Kendra. "That is the only explanation we can come up with for why he hasn't woken up. He shows no outward signs of being cursed, but his mind – that must be where it's affecting him. I believe I was close to finding out what type of curse it was before my strength fled me before." She gently caressed his face with an unreadable expression on her face. "It's not surprising that he's been cursed, of course, especially considering who he is and where he was for so long." She bowed her head. "If I'd known he was alive… If I'd known what fate he would face… I wouldn't have rested until he was reclaimed. I was so engrossed in the direct ramifications of his fall…"

"He is right here, right now," Kendra replied, equally quietly. "The past can't be changed. He's suffered enough – and I don't know him, but I'm assuming he wouldn't want you to suffer any more than you already have, either."

The Queen nodded her head and grasped his right hand in hers. "Wise words."

There was silence for a moment, then the Queen looked directly at Kendra and continued to speak. "You and I will need to be in physical contact with each other," she began. "You will also need to be in physical contact with my horn." She paused for a moment and turned her sight back to her husband. "Kendra, I do not know what type of curse has enveloped him so deeply. The possible ramifications of approaching such a curse are unknown. You must follow my instructions."

"Absolutely, I will," Kendra promised.

"If I tell you to release me, you must obey."

Kendra muttered her assent again.

"Bracken will have insight into what we are battling, through the communicator necklace you are wearing. Please try to keep your mind open. It is important for him to be able to witness what is happening, so that he can forcibly remove you if you are unable to do so yourself. We will take no chances with your life."

"What about yours? Who will save you, if it comes to it?" Kendra asked in concern.

The Queen placed her hand on Kendra's shoulder affectionately. "My daughter Coral will step in and attempt to intervene." She inclined her head toward the tall, stoic-looking woman who stood about 20 feet away. Kendra thought she looked like she could be a supermodel, with the exception of her severe expression. Bracken stood to the right of Coral, appearing almost the opposite of his sister – relaxed and happy.

Kendra nodded her head and asked, "When would you like to begin?"

The Queen lowered her hand to her waist and removed her horn from the belt that held it in place. She handled it with almost a sort of reverence as she lifted it to her lips and gently kissed the tip of it. "Momentarily. Bracken, Coral – to your places, please."

Bracken moved to stand next to Kendra and Coral stood next to her mother. "Kendra, grasp my hand," the Queen instructed. The young woman obeyed. _Thank you again_, Kendra heard the Queen's voice in her head. Using her left hand, the Queen held out her horn and rested it on her husband's forehead. "Kendra, help hold it steady."

Kendra's right hand grasped the Queen's horn, and the hair on her body stood up in reaction. She suddenly felt like she was full of an electrical charge. Bracken's eyes widened dramatically while Coral's serious expression took on a hint of surprise. "You glowed like a lighthouse before," Bracken said in awe. "Now you're shining like the sun."

"Do not touch her," the Queen said to Bracken, her voice soft and affectionate. "She is already channeling most of the energy that I was able to access before. I am optimistic about this venture."

Gazing at Kendra, the Queen said, "We begin now."

Kendra closed her eyes. When she opened them again she saw nothing but white, with occasional brilliant light patterns fluctuating in a rainbow of faded colors. The room they inhabited was no longer there; the King wasn't there; Bracken and Coral were nowhere to be found. She and the Queen were the only ones that existed.

_We are in his mind_, the Queen's voice resounded. _We are linked with him, mind to mind. Just ahead is what I saw when I probed last._

Kendra looked and saw what appeared to be a small dark hole in the vast expanse of white and muted colors. _I'm assuming we need to approach it?_ Kendra asked.

_Yes. Follow my lead._ The Queen walked forward and Kendra kept an even pace with her. When they reached the black hole, the Queen examined it curiously. After a moment, she said, _I am not familiar with this curse. Its purpose is not known to me. Based on the surface of what we see, I would brace for difficulty. Whatever you might see, Kendra, remember that it is not real; it is an illusion. You will control the situation with your mind._

_What do you think will happen? _ she asked.

_I'm unsure, _the Queen responded. _This is powerful dark magic, made stronger because of the number of years it has been left to fester and grow. Just remember – the way to control what happens here is to clearly picture what you want to be accomplished. Keep a level head and always remember that regardless of how real any of this feels, it is false. This curse is malevolent and will fight back in some way._

Kendra was undeniably nervous. Still, she set her face and nodded her head. _Alright, _she answered. _Let's do this._

The Queen closed her eyes and a sword materialized in her hand. _I suggest you arm yourself, if for no other reason than to help you feel more prepared. _Kendra immediately thought of her best moment where she felt truly useful and purposeful – when she defeated Gorgrog. Vasilis appeared in her hand – not the _real_ Vasilis, she understood, but a copy of the sword that had helped her to feel more courageous than she ever had before.

_I'm ready,_ Kendra said. The Queen extended her sword and struck the black hole. Immediately, Kendra felt like a vacuum was pulling them into the hole and their surroundings darkened dramatically. They were in a forest at what appeared to be night time. The Queen let out a gasp and clenched her sword tightly in her hand. _Do you recognize where we are?_ Kendra asked.

_Yes,_ the Queen answered. _What I don't understand is why._

She gave no further explanation, but walked forward instead. Kendra followed behind her, keeping a wary eye on their surroundings. The path they walked on was narrow and the trees were dense. The absence of light caused the forest to take on an eerie atmosphere as thick branches reached far above their heads, blocking out any possible moon or starlight. Kendra couldn't see the sky at all. The place, quite frankly, gave her the creeps.

After a few moments of walking, the Queen ran forward and found what appeared to Kendra to be a sleeping astrid. He was in an odd position – almost like he'd just crumpled where he'd previously stood – and Kendra had to wonder if he had naturally fallen asleep that way, or if something had caused him to collapse. The Queen examined him quickly and told Kendra, _He was poisoned. Kendra, this is a memory of mine. This will not be pleasant. _ She stood up and ran to the crest of a nearby hill. When Kendra caught up, she looked at the base of the hill and saw that the forest widened into a large meadow where a few tents had been pitched and a wide array of creatures of light were gathered. Some slept, others spoke quietly with one another. There were no other astrids in sight.

_Where are they? _The Queen asked herself, gazing about with eagle eyes.

"Your Majesty," a nearby fairy – a male fairy! – approached the Queen and bowed. The Queen's expression took on a look of surprise and Kendra sensed that she had not expected to be able to interact with her memory.

"Hello, Ardme," she responded.

"Evil is upon us," he stated quickly. "All around us. I can sense it."

"Have you seen the astrids?" the Queen asked, again casting her gaze around to try and find them.

"No, I haven't," he answered. "You've brought a human with you?"

Kendra gave the Queen a sidelong glance and then introduced herself. "My name is Kendra," she said.

"Very well," he responded, shrugging her off. "This is an urgent matter. We are surrounded. What are your orders?"

The Queen thought for a moment, then responded. "Wake all that are sleeping. Gather in the center of the meadow. If darkness will fall upon us, we will fight."

The fairy bowed his head and flew off to inform the others in the meadow.

"Kendra," the Queen said, "I don't fully understand why this is happening. This is a recreation of the night the King was captured and presumed dead. My speculation is that we need to prevent the same outcome from occurring in order to break this curse." She readied her stance with her sword. "I will summon my astrids. My children are in the largest tent and my husband is in the tent next to theirs. I was performing reconnaissance this night and was not here for the start of what is about to come. Protect them. I will do the same."

"I will," Kendra agreed, then rushed down into the meadow toward the specified tents. When she arrived at the largest one, she quickly ran inside and found a young Bracken sitting at a desk holding a quill in one hand and looking up at her with a puzzled expression. "Who are you?" he asked, his voice slightly higher pitched than how she remembered him. The quill in his hand dripped ink onto the paper below it as he held it poised in the air.

"My name is Kendra," she said. "Your mother has sent me to prepare you. We are about to be ambushed."

Bracken instantly stood up and moved to a group of four obviously young unicorns – presumably his sisters – who were sleeping peacefully. He appeared to be about 15 years old per Kendra's calendar. "Wake up," he said, shaking them until they began to stir. The girls huddled together nervously as Bracken told the three youngest to stay in the tent. "Coral, you keep watch over them," he stated to the one who changed into her human avatar upon noticing Bracken's serious expression and tone of voice. She nodded her understanding and transformed her horn into a sword, immediately adopting a protective stance. Bracken then turned to Kendra. "You and I will aid in the fight."

Kendra wordlessly followed Bracken outside the tent. As he hurried over to his father's tent, the night suddenly erupted into deafening noise and chaos as creatures of light rushed to assemble themselves in the center of the meadow and demons came out from the cover of the trees. Bracken quickly entered his father's tent and emerged only moments later in time to witness several white stags with golden horns fall to the blades of the nearest demons. Human-sized fairies rose up to meet their enemies. The battle had begun.

Bracken ran to meet the oncoming demons, and the Fairy Queen suddenly appeared at Kendra's side. "The astrids were negligent," she said. Kendra could feel simmering anger emanating from the Queen. "They have been reprimanded and will arrive momentarily. The wizards will likewise be here very soon. This was the last battle prior to the demons' initial imprisonment, and it was not long lived."

Kendra then realized that they were located on Shoreless Isle – she recognized the shape of the land, although the face of it had changed dramatically in the years since the events portrayed in this memory had taken place. They were standing near where the shrine to the Fairy Queen would eventually be constructed. And the large, dark hill in the distance – that must be where Zzyzx was apparently about to be located. Apparently the island had once been populated by dense forest.

A large shout from the creatures of light sounded, and Kendra watched as astrids began to pour into the demon ranks. The dark host started to retreat under the strength of the Fairy King's guard, until the loudest roar anyone had heard so far brought most of the skirmish to a sudden halt as all watched the massive form of Gorgrog the Demon King leaping across the land to join the fight.

The cover of night obviously strengthened the Demon King – he was larger and much more frightening than Kendra remembered him. Gorgrog slammed into the meadow and made a beeline for the Fairy Queen, who leapt to meet him with her sword. "Protect my husband!" she called out before she took flight.

The Fairy King emerged from his tent wearing armor and wielding a spear. A bow was slung across his chest and a quiver of arrows rested against his back. He was a handsome man and appeared to be a proud warrior. In the back of her head, Kendra idly thought that his facial features were similar to Bracken's. The King ran to his wife's aid as Kendra cried out for him to stop.

"You can't help her!" she called out, running forward to try and meet his stride. "Stop – you could die!"

He turned around abruptly to face Kendra. "Cowardice is unthinkable. I will not abandon my wife."

"Stop – I will help her! You need to stay safe!" she called as he turned around and continued to hurry toward the fray.

Kendra heard a scream and saw the Queen falling to the ground, hard and fast. Her heart stopped beating as she seemingly witnessed the scene in slow motion. Shock filled her system as she willed her sword to come to life as it had in her own recent history. She witnessed Bracken make his way toward his mother as the King called out to his wife and picked up his pace. Gorgrog roared in triumph and drew his arm back to deliver the finishing blow to the Queen just as Kendra arrived on the scene with her magnificently shining sword. "You will not harm them!" she yelled before she leapt into the air and engaged the Demon King. As Gorgrog turned his sights on Kendra, a wicked grin split over his face and the entire scene suddenly disappeared. Kendra looked around in confusion and located the Queen who was laying on the ground about ten feet away. The Queen rolled onto her side and curled in on herself.

"Are you alright!?" Kendra cried as she ran to the Queen.

"I will be fine," she answered through gritted teeth. "Be careful. This curse is not through yet. I can sense that we've made a deep cut into it." She gripped Kendra's arm. "I've instructed Coral and Bracken to stand down. They nearly interfered. Your strength is lasting exceedingly well. The magic of my horn is also remaining steady. My own energy is beginning to wane; I've been taking the brunt of the curse. I have been weakened."

"Should we withdraw? Try again another day?" Kendra asked, frantically looking over the Queen to make sure she wasn't physically wounded.

"No!" the Queen responded fervently. "I will not allow this curse to continue to course through the King's body any longer than it absolutely must. I must press on while there is any force left in me. Kendra, you are still at full strength – I can feel it. My horn is able to maintain our balance for quite a while longer. Please – I wish to continue. I fear that if we abandon him now, we will have to restart our efforts over again during the next attempt."

"I'm worried about you," Kendra answered. "You don't look well."

"I have been trying to control the flow of energy out of me, but that memory was obviously brought forth to attack me directly."

"I didn't rescue the King," Kendra answered. "Everything disappeared before I had the chance to finish."

"It's coming back," the Queen said, opening her eyes. "Prepare yourself."

Kendra stood up and watched as the darkness grew and eventually enveloped them again. This time, however, was different – she saw faces. People that she recognized spun through the air as memory after memory was played out in front of her in quick succession. She witnessed Lena holding a precious pebble in her hand and diving toward a mangled tree , dying as the pebble touched the black nail protruding from the tree. She saw Neil, the "skinwalker" from Lost Mesa, dying as his body brushed against one of the poisonous pods their group had had to crawl through. Vincent, from Obsidian Waste, drowning under a thick layer of ice. All of the Eternals she had met and fought for. Marcus' death at the hands of Torina. Civia's death as she tried to flee on a motorcycle. Roon, burnt to a crisp in the fortress he'd once called home. Other heart-wrenching memories surfaced; when everyone had assumed Seth had been truly devoured by Olloch the Glutton; when Warren had been gored by the peryton; those heart-wrenching moments when Bracken had been attacked by Torina and Seth had turned into a gaseous version of himself in order to avoid dying from a mortal wound. The scenes that flashed in front of her brought tears to her eyes as the emotions she'd buried long ago resurfaced. Regret. Depression. Fear. Loathing. Niko the tiger dissolving into dust and drifting away with the wind. Tammy being flung over the edge of a cliff by a magical rain dancer. Laura becoming a zombie in her goal to buy Kendra's group time to recover the translocator. Dougan being devoured by Navarog. Despair. Loneliness. Betrayal. The Sphinx. Gavin.

Anger and hurt coursed through her body when she saw his face. _Traitor_. And she'd been so stupid, so blind, so trusting. Too trusting.

Sidestep Cleft formed itself around her. A storm raged overhead; lightning cracked, thunder rumbled and violent wind whistled through the pathetic shelter where she stood. A dark, human shape approached her from the distance.

Kendra knew where she was. She would never forget this place. Treachery at the hands of the boy who had been able to get too close to her. _Never again_. She envisioned a sword like Bracken's in her hand and it appeared immediately.

"That little sword won't do you much good," Gavin said.

"It'll do plenty well against someone who's already dead," Kendra spat out.

"You've gotten feisty," Gavin said in an approving tone. "Such a change from 'Dear Gavin, I think you're _awesome_. And your st-st-stutter is _so_ cute! XOXO.' I think I like you even more this way."

"Oh please," she answered. "I've dealt with monsters _far_ worse than you."

"Right," he laughed darkly. "Yet I'm the one who continues to haunt you."

"You were a mistake. A gross error in judgment."

"You're forgetting I'm also a master deceiver."

"We should have let you die when Siletta poisoned you," Kendra said, still poised and ready to defend herself should he attack.

"Yes, you should have," he answered, appearing disinterested with the conversation. "But you didn't. Instead, you saved me. And this time, my dear, there will be no invisible dragon to save you."

"You're right," Kendra said. "It's just you and me." She closed her eyes and concentrated inward, focusing on the energy she knew was welled up within her being. When she reopened her eyes only moments later, they glowed like white fire and her sword did likewise.

Gavin's own eyes widened. "What are you doing?" he asked, moving his left hand up to partially block the light emanating from Kendra. The raging storm seemed to calm – or, at least, Kendra no longer heard any of the noise coming from it.

"You are the embodiment of everything bad that has ever happened to me," she said. "You must have had some nerve to pick on a defenseless fifteen-year-old girl. I'm not defenseless anymore. And you? You are pathetic. Look at you, cowering before my light. I don't need a dragon to eat you – I will deal with you myself, once and for all."

_Kendra_, a voice in her head sounded. She shrugged it off and started to move toward the boy, who began to take steps backward.

"I have thought about this moment many times," Kendra began. "You had me cornered. Weaponless. You trapped Warren in the knapsack. Your betrayal cut me so deeply that I have struggled to trust _everyone_ I meet." She continued advancing toward him, a lethal glower on her face. "You were supposed to be my friend. To be different, like me. Instead, you turned out to be a complete fraud."

_Kendra, the curse is feeding off of your hate_, the voice chimed in again.

"You and those like you are the filth of the earth. You think you can take anything you want, use anyone you want, do anything you want. Destruction is all that comes from you."

_Kendra, stop!_

She hesitated as her conscience registered that the voice belonged to Bracken. What was he doing here?

Gavin took that opportunity to strike. He lunged forward with his sword – Warren's sword – but Kendra recovered quickly and blocked his attack.

"Well done," Gavin commented. "Next time you won't be so lucky."

"Kendra," she heard from her left side. The Fairy Queen. She sounded incredibly weak. "This will destroy you. Don't let that happen."

Gavin's attention switched from Kendra to the Queen. He quickly ran over in her direction, and alarm rang through Kendra's mind. "Navarog!" Kendra shouted, throwing her sword at him. It struck the ground immediately in front of him and halted his progress. "Your issue is with me, not her."

He grinned wickedly, and Kendra glowered at him. Suddenly, warm memories flooded her subconscious – the giant stuffed clown fish, her brother placing ridiculous noisemakers around the house, she and Bracken snuggling up on the Ferris wheel, waltzing the night away in a beautiful blue dress, playing volleyball with the satyrs, kissing Bracken in the snow, feeling affection from the Fairy Queen.

And it registered within Kendra that this was not real. That she was interacting with a curse. And Bracken and the Queen were trying to warn her that the curse would win if she kept reacting with anger.

Her outward glow diminished as she let go of what she was feeling and started putting things into their proper perspective. "You hate me," Gavin said, as though understanding the situation and trying to provoke her. "And you have good reason."

Kendra didn't respond to his words.

"Remember what you lost? What the Society _gained_ as a result of your losses?"

Silence.

"You and your brother were taken advantage of. Multiple times. All in an effort to advance the Society's agenda and thwart the efforts of the Knights." He walked toward Kendra, still holding his sword at his side. She stood before him, unafraid and unresponsive. "And you – you personally. I was your friend. I even liked you. And I _know_ you liked me."

Kendra closed her eyes.

"Pay attention to me," he demanded.

"I've paid you enough attention," Kendra responded as calmly as she could, using all the patience she could muster. "And I control this situation. What I picture, happens. And I've had enough of listening to you."

She opened her eyes and said softly, "I'm done. Completely. You are, too."

And with those words, the scene around her faded away and Gavin was cut off mid-protest. The original scenery of white and refracted light of various colors returned – this time, however, the colors were more vibrant where they'd been very muted before.

She rushed to the Fairy Queen, who smiled at her. "I'm sorry," Kendra said. "I got caught up in everything. I should have known better – I lost track of what was happening and where I was."

"I understand," the Queen said. "We've accomplished much. It is time to leave – I am unable to probe any further, although I believe we've done enough. Take my hand," she instructed. Kendra obeyed. A few seconds later she found herself in the infirmary, still facing the King in the triangle formation with the Queen and her horn.

The Queen let go of Kendra's hand and began to lower herself to the floor, however her son interrupted her and helped her onto another nearby bed instead. He then pushed her bed next to the King's and Coral immediately started tending to her mother. Kendra stood still, registering where she was and piecing together what had just happened. The experiences she'd had felt so real, but now that she was back to normal she felt kind of like she'd been having out-of-body experiences.

Bracken approached her and placed his hands on her shoulders, directing her attention to him. He spoke slowly. "I will _never_ betray you," he said before he embraced her tightly.

"You saw…?" she asked, tensing up.

"I kept watch through your necklace. I tried to pull you away when you were facing off against Navarog, to bring you out of it," he said. "You were glowing so brightly, you actually created a shield around yourself – I couldn't get within a foot of you. I had to mentally insert myself into your situation instead."

"I'm sorry I ignored you," she said. She still felt a bit numb to all emotion after everything that had happened.

"You didn't ignore me." He took a deep breath and then explained further. "I did something that I have very rarely done, because it is extremely invasive – your mind was open to attack. I used that opportunity, and our link through your necklace, to delve into your mind and pull up as many good memories of yours as I could easily locate." His voice was extremely apologetic. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do – I had to bring you back to your senses. The situation was dire – I would have lost you."

She blinked and to her surprise, tears started to fall. "I lost control," she cried. "You did the right thing. It made me remember where I was. That curse – that _curse_!" She took a few shuddering breaths. "If your father has been experiencing the same mind attacks that I witnessed the entire time since he was captured, it's no wonder why he's been in such a non-responsive state. Bracken, I'm so sorry!"

"Kendra, you have to allow yourself to grieve for those you have lost and for things that could have been," he said. When that failed to calm her, he said, "You're safe now. I won't let anything harm you."

He let her cry for a minute more before he said in her ear, "By the way, remind me to never make you angry. The amount of power coursing through your body was frightening."

She let out a choked laugh. "You'd have to do something worse than Navarog did," she said. "You'd better not."

"Never," he promised. He then looked to where his father laid in bed and stiffened. "Kendra," he said, obviously in shock.

"What's up?" she asked, wiping her eyes. She followed his gaze and saw the Fairy Queen holding her husband's right hand and smiling through tears. The King's face was full of peace as he breathed in and out. As she watched, a smile graced his features. Coral ceased her administrations to her mother and stared at her father, her eyes full of what Kendra could only assume was hope.

"Thank you," the Queen said as she stroked the King's face with her free hand. "He is at peace now."

"Will he wake up?" she asked.

"Not today. But I expect soon – much was accomplished today. I can never fully repay you for all you have done – however, before you leave this realm, please drink from the spring at the appropriate shrine."

"I sincerely hope the best for him," Kendra responded. "I can't even imagine the amount of suffering he has been through… he deserves peace and happiness."

"As do you," she responded. "Rest well, Kendra Sorenson. Bracken, please see her safely home."

* * *

Kendra had been exhausted by the time she made it home. Bracken had actually picked her up and carried her over the porch and into one of the guest bedrooms – since she had become of age, the protections of the attic no longer applied to her and she'd had to move downstairs. She was asleep before she was even laid on the bed; her mother had helped Bracken tuck her in, although she didn't remember any of that.

The five o'clock hour found Kendra laying awake and staring at the ceiling. At first she hadn't understood where she was; when it registered that she was at home, she breathed a sigh of relief. Reliving everything over again was beyond physically draining – it was mentally and emotionally so as well. She was back to feeling numb again as she reflected on the things "Gavin" had said. They'd lost so much. So many people had lost their lives. She'd witnessed so much death, destruction, hatred and hardship and had survived. Not for the first time, she wondered why she'd been the lucky one to live while others who were equally worthy of life had had it stolen from them.

She rolled onto her side and looked at the window in her room. The blinds were closed, but she could tell it was still very early morning. No sunlight filtered through them. She idly wondered what time the sun would rise, then decided that she would get up and watch it since she wasn't sleeping any longer.

After standing up, she realized she was still dressed in her clothes from the previous day but decided that she didn't care and would take a shower later. Right now she was feeling a little claustrophobic and needed to get away from her thoughts for a while. Shrugging on a thick winter coat, she found a hat and some boots and made her way to the front yard instead of the back yard for a change. The front of the house would have a better view of the sunrise anyway.

She did her best to quietly sneak out of the house so that she wouldn't disturb anyone else. It was still quite dark outside, and Kendra again wondered what time the sun was supposed to rise and whether she'd be sitting outside for hours or not.

Her breath swirled around her with every exhale. A thick layer of snow coated everything except the covered front porch. She started shivering a little after only having spent a few minutes in the cold, but she wasn't ready to go back inside quite yet.

The door opened behind her, and Kendra turned around to find her brother wearing thick pajama pants and a sweater. "I heard you sneak out. It was almost time for me to get up anyway to do my chores. What are you doing up so early?" he asked.

Kendra didn't answer; she just turned around again and tried to huddle in on herself for warmth.

Seth hesitated in the doorway as he debated going out into the cold. He quickly made up his mind and grabbed a random coat that was hanging up by the door, then walked outside and sat on the porch next to his sister.

"Bracken said you'd probably not be up to doing much for a while," he said.

"He was probably right," she answered.

Seth shuffled around where he sat, not quite able to get comfortable. "What happened?" he asked. "I mean, Bracken explained a lot, but I want to hear it from you."

She was silent for a while. "Being there, it just... stirred up a lot of bad memories."

"Like what?"

She hesitated before responding. "Everyone we've known who died. The curse on the Fairy King reenacted all of their deaths. And... I relived the whole Gavin betrayal thing." She blushed a little bit and tried to shrink her face farther into her coat. "I kind of flipped out a little. Bracken told me I needed to mourn."

"First off, if you didn't kick Gavin's butt then I think I might have to disown you," Seth said jokingly. "Second, everything _did_ happen really fast. We didn't have much time to mourn anyone or anything while we were going through it all. And after everything was over, I think we just felt more relieved to finally rest than anything else."

Kendra felt a lump forming in her throat again. She tried to swallow it down, but it refused to budge. As she started sniffling, her brother put his arm around her shoulders. She leaned against him and he rested his head against hers as she cried.

"What is wrong with me?" she asked. "I did this earlier. Why can't I stop?"

Seth didn't answer her, instead opting to remain quiet.

Sunrise found the siblings still huddled together, the tears gone from Kendra's face. The morning brought a quiet peace to their troubled minds as they communed in silence with each other. Kendra eventually drifted off to sleep again, and Seth let her rest until he decided he absolutely could not handle the cold anymore and woke her to shuffle them both inside. Back to the normal world. Back to their routine. But the two siblings couldn't help feeling a little lighter as the day went by; a burden had been shared and subsequently lightened.

Kendra would never replace her brother. And no matter how he might kid around sometimes, Seth would never replace his sister. Not in a million years.

* * *

There you go, some mature Seth for you all. :) He's growing.

Let me know what you think. I was nervous about posting this chapter. I won't be able to post another one for probably a few weeks, just FYI.

I may revisit the Gavin thing in a story separate from this one, but probably not. Sorry, I won't ever be bringing him back to life - he's been digested. Brandon Mull said so himself. ;)


	16. Family

Possible trigger warning? :( I have reasons… And lots of flashbacks here – those should be obvious, but in case they aren't, those are the passages that will be entirely italicized.

* * *

**Chapter 16: Family**

Kendra's dream that night was vivid. She was walking through a field of vibrant flowers – deep reds, shimmery golds, royal purples and blues – but every time she bent over to smell them, they'd close up and shrink back into themselves. She thought it was odd, but it also made her smile a little as she pretended that they just had shy personalities. She laid down among the flowers and watched white clouds move across the sky as soft music played in the background. Each one seemed to take on a funny shape – an elephant. A bathtub. A cushy chair.

She raised her eyebrow as the cushion on the chair appeared to raise and the cloud itself said her name. For some strange reason it made sense on a wild level and she shrugged it off and closed her eyes.

Again she heard her name – and again, she shrugged it off.

"Kendra," she heard once more. "Kendra, answer your cell phone."

It began to register with her that the background music she heard was the same as her ring tone. Affection filled her being as she reflected on how much she liked that song – and then she suddenly woke up as she realized that her phone was _actually_ ringing and Bracken had been _actually_ trying to wake her up through their link in her necklace.

_Sorry, _she said. _I must have really been tired to sleep through all of that. What's up?_

_Answer your phone,_ he said eagerly. _Vanessa and Warren are on their way to pick you up. They should be there in about forty minutes._

Kendra confusedly looked at her phone and saw that she'd missed quite a few calls from her grandparents' house and also from Vanessa. She called her grandparents' number and was surprised when Dale answered the phone.

"Hey Dale," she said. "I was asleep, someone's been trying to reach me. What's going on?"

"We've all been trying to reach you," Dale said, voice full of apprehension mixed with relief.

"Why, what's the matter? What happened?" she asked, growing nervous as she picked up on Dale's unease.

"Your dad is in the hospital," he answered. "Warren and Vanessa are coming to get you. They left maybe 20 minutes ago. Vanessa is driving, so they'll be there soon."

"What!?" Kendra shouted. "What happened to my dad!?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "The rest of your family is at the hospital with him. Hank, Gloria and I stayed behind to keep everything running here."

Kendra's cell phone beeped in her ear and she looked at it quickly. "Dale, I have to go," she said. "Vanessa is calling."

"Be safe," Dale replied. "Call when you know more."

"Will do," she answered before switching lines to Vanessa's cell phone. "Hello?" she asked once she'd hung up on Dale.

"Kendra!" she heard Warren's voice cry out. "We're coming to get you. Pack your things. We'll be there in 30 minutes. Your dad is in the emergency room at the hospital."

"I was just talking to Dale," she responded. "What do you know?" she asked urgently.

"Not much," he answered. "Your mom found him collapsed in the kitchen a little over an hour ago. Get ready to leave – we'll drive straight there."

"Okay," she agreed. Warren hung up.

Kendra looked down at her phone and saw that it was almost 2:30 in the morning. She was jittery from her nervousness and looked around her room helplessly, as though not sure what to do first. A soft knock sounded at her bedroom door and she ran to answer it. Kendra's roommate stood in front of her, dark hair and pajamas disheveled from obviously recent slumber.

"Is everything alright?" Julie asked. "I heard your voice. You sounded, I don't know… frantic."

Kendra placed her hands on her head and grabbed fistfuls of hair, then ran her hands down her face in distress. "My dad is in the hospital and no one knows why. I don't know much about what happened. My cousin and his wife are coming to pick me up, they'll be here soon," she spat out quickly. "I don't know where to start!" she shouted, feeling like she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Julie said, all traces of sleep fleeing from her face. She took hold of one of Kendra's arms and led her to the kitchen where she poured Kendra a glass of water and made her sit down. "Drink it," she commanded. Kendra complied.

"Alright," Julie began once Kendra had finished drinking. "Let's get you packed. How many days will you be gone?"

Kendra shrugged her shoulders. "I have no idea. I do have some clothes back home," she said.

"Good. First things first, let's get you three changes of clothes. You pick out your outfits and I'll get your toiletries. Okay? Three of them, Kayla."

Kendra nodded, way beyond used to her fake name by this point. She would be graduating at the end of May after four years of college – it was presently mid-March.

As she rushed about her dresser drawers pulling out extra shirts, pants and undergarments, she felt a sort of buzzing in her brain – a sign that Bracken was trying to contact her and she was effectively blocking him, albeit unintentionally.

_Hey,_ she sent to him hurriedly. _Thank you for waking me up._

_I'm glad it worked, and I'm sorry I had to disturb you… I thought this was important,_ she heard in response. _I've just been in contact with Seth. He's at the hospital with your family. The doctor told them that your dad had a heart attack._

_Any word on how he's doing?_ she immediately asked.

_He's in surgery right now, _Bracken stated. _That's all we know. I didn't make it to the caravan before everyone left the house, but I'm on my way to the hospital now. Hopefully I'll be able to help him if they can't._

Kendra heard a knock on her door frame and turned around to see Julie carrying Kendra's small travel bag with her. "I packed your shampoo, conditioner, face wash, toothpaste, tooth brush and floss," she began. "You keep your moisturizer and make-up in here, right?"

"Yeah – over on top of my desk," Kendra responded. Julie fetched the remaining items and then presented Kendra with the stuffed travel kit.

"What about your books?" Julie asked, pointing to Kendra's desk where her textbooks and homework were currently sitting.

Kendra bit her lip. "I'd better take them," she said. "I don't know that I'll get anything done, but it'd be good to have them just in case." Julie filled Kendra's backpack with her school books while Kendra finished shoving everything else she needed into a duffel bag. Before they knew it, Warren was ringing the doorbell to their apartment.

"Thank you for all of your help," Kendra said, giving Julie a tight hug.

"I hope your dad will be alright," Julie responded. "Let me know what happens. Now go!" she insisted, releasing her roommate and pushing her toward the front door. Once Kendra opened it, Warren immediately grabbed her bags and ushered her into Vanessa's car. They sped away as soon as Kendra had buckled her seat belt, a tight knot of nervousness welled up in her chest.

_Please be alright,_ she thought repeatedly. _Please be alright.  
_

* * *

Kendra seemed to drift through her final exams the next week. Try as she might, she couldn't concentrate. Her mind kept replaying the events of the weekend, over and over again, like a broken record.

_Bracken was standing outside of the hospital when Vanessa pulled up at the entrance to the emergency room. His arms were stiff at his side and his aura wasn't as brilliant of a blue as it normally was. As soon as he saw them approach, he leapt up from where he was leaning against the wall and opened Kendra's door, ushering her out of the car. Once she was standing up, he enveloped her in a tight embrace._

"_How is he?" she asked urgently, pulling away from him and heading toward the doors._

_He pulled her back. "Kendra," he said, looking into her face. The tone of his voice said it all._

_She stared at him blankly and spoke after a brief pause. "I have to go see him."_

"_Kendra…"_

_She closed her eyes and bowed her head._

"_I just talked to him yesterday on the phone," she said softly._

"_I'm so sorry," Bracken said, doing his best to catch her attention. He sounded somehow more than just sincere – it was like he was speaking from his soul._

"_I have to go see him," she repeated, refusing to turn her attention away from her shoes._

"_The doctors haven't allowed anyone to see him yet," he explained. "Your grandparents, mother and Seth are all inside. You are all dealing with a terrible loss – I didn't want them to have to break the news to you on top of everything else."_

_Large, hot tears started to fall down Kendra's cheeks and onto the pavement below her. Still keeping her head bowed, she leaned forward against Bracken's chest and he reflexively wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. "I'm _so sorry_," he whispered. _

Seth had been staring blankly at a wall in the waiting room when Kendra walked in. He recognized his sister long enough to wave her over and give her an awkward half-hug while she continued to cry and he went back to being nonresponsive. Her mother had been a disaster – Marla had held her head in her hands and couldn't stop sobbing. Grandma and Grandpa Sorenson were both in tears as well, but they tried to hold themselves together well enough to help Marla with all of the paperwork the hospital was required to have her complete.

Kendra and Seth stayed in the waiting room for a good two or three hours with their family before Marla had insisted that they go home.

"_Come with us, Mom," Kendra said, tugging on her mother's arm._

_Marla shook her head sadly and looked close to tears again. "No," she started, then paused to regain her composure. "I want to be with him for a little while."_

None of them could find it within themselves to argue with her, even if they had wanted to. Kendra, Seth and Bracken crowded into Vanessa's car with Warren in the front passenger's seat. Grandma and Grandpa Sorenson stayed behind to wait for Marla.

A heart attack. Mom said that he had gone to bed complaining of indigestion, so she told him to take some medicine before retiring for the night. When he left their bedroom at close to one o'clock in the morning and didn't come back after twenty minutes or so, she thought he was having more discomfort and assumed he'd just decided to watch some television or read the newspaper. She'd resolved to get up and find him to try and help him or at least keep him company, but what she found instead was the crumpled form of her husband on the kitchen floor with a half-empty glass of water sitting on the counter near where he'd fallen.

He never woke up.

There would be a small funeral service in four days. Scott would be buried next to Kendra's first stingbulb, per a request he'd made in passing to his wife a long time ago.

"_I'm proud of you. My daughter – the college graduate!" Dad's voice resounded from her cell phone._

_Kendra smiled. "Not yet, Dad," she'd answered. "I still have final exams to make it through."_

"_Pfft. You've got those in the bag, Miss 3.85 GPA." He pulled the phone away from his ear and shouted behind him, "My girl is graduating from college!" When he put the phone back to his ear, he whispered conspiratorially, "Your classes this term _are_ easy, right? No-brainers? I'm not going to be surprised with a postponed graduation, right?"_

"_I'll have you know that ceramics 101 is more difficult than you'd think," she answered, grinning. "I have a couple of essays to turn in next week in lieu of a final exam for my writing and English classes, a sculpture to paint and fire, and my last math test to get through. Not much left at this point."_

_Their conversation came to a pause and after a few seconds, Kendra asked, "Dad? Are you still there?"_

"_Yeah," he answered. "I'm just… I love you."_

"_I love you, too," she answered._

"_So, when's this graduation thing going to happen!?" he asked, pride creeping into his voice again._

"_At the end of May, so in a little over two months."_

"_Two months!? What are you going to do until then?"_

"_Well… I figured I'd come home, if that's alright," she responded cheerfully._

"_HA! You think you can just come home whenever you want? Well, you're _right_!" He moved the phone away from his ear again and Kendra heard him shout, "Kendra's coming home next week!"_

_She could hear her mother in the background, asking her dad to pass the phone over so she could have a chance to talk to their daughter. Kendra laughed as Dad refused and teased Mom about her lack of sufficient height to pull the phone out of his hand._

Her heart ached. She'd cried enough tears to fill a swimming pool, she was sure. Her homecoming after her last final exam was pathetic – no one felt like partying, although her Grandparents Larsen did their best to make the evening a nice one. Grandma Larsen had made a juicy pot roast for dinner and dessert had been provided courtesy of the brownies – some odd, marshmallowy concoction that seemed to melt in their mouths like cotton candy and was simultaneously full of differing, marvelously full flavors.

After dinner, Seth had holed himself in his room again – no longer in the attic since he had come of age a couple of years prior, he was officially downstairs along with most everyone else. He'd taken over Vanessa's old room, since she had moved into the cabin with Warren after they were married. Dale had relocated to the main house to give them their privacy.

Kendra excused herself to unpack her suitcase and just be by herself for a little while. As much as she loved her family, she really just didn't feel like talking to anyone much these days. She'd even removed the necklace that Bracken had given her for the time being.

Unloading her suitcase took maybe twenty minutes at most, despite her best efforts to drag it out. As she walked down the hallway to re-enter the kitchen and subsequently the dining room to see who was left hanging out around the table, she overheard her mother and Bracken speaking to one another in hushed tones.

"I don't want to be insensitive. Do you… is it too soon?" she heard him ask quietly.

"It's two months away," Marla said. "True, that's not extremely far into the future, but it's far enough for some of the hurt to have healed." She heard her mother take a breath. "The earth keeps spinning, Bracken. Time continues to pass. The world doesn't stop just because of us. And honestly, I think we could all use something to celebrate."

Bracken shuffled his feet. "I just don't want to be insensitive. I've waited this long, I can wait a little longer."

Kendra felt a tap on her shoulder and she spun around to find her brother right behind her.

"I was just going into the kitchen… Seth? Are you alright?" she asked, concern showing in her voice. He looked stricken, which surprised her.

Seth shook his head and looked like he was either about to start screaming or burst into tears right in front of her.

"I've been summoned," he said. "Just now. I have to be there by noon tomorrow, which means I have to leave like… now."

She stared blankly at him. "You mean… the Singing Sisters…?"

"Yes," he said. "They summoned me. The stupid… They summoned me _now_ of all times!" He looked like he wanted to punch the wall behind Kendra, and she noticed the magic around him seemed to be somehow darker or more intense than usual.

Kendra stood still, mouth agape, brain racing at a mile per minute. She refused to linger on the thought of whether they would be burying Seth alongside her father this weekend – the mere idea caused her intense grief and, quite honestly, angered her.

Warren walked past them right then and once he'd noticed their expressions, he said, "Judging by the looks on your faces, I'm assuming we're finally taking that road trip?"

* * *

The next chapter is almost completely written. I'm finalizing the last paragraphs and then have to read it through for continuity and to catch as many typos as I can find. I'll have it up in a day or two, but in the meanwhile I wanted to get this one out.

No Brackendra in the next chapter, but there will be lots in the one after. I like writing mushy stuff. :)

If you didn't follow: Kendra is now 21.5, which would make Seth 19 (nearly 20).


	17. Honesty

I've posted two chapters in close proximity to each other - please make sure you've read Chapter 16 before you continue with this one. Otherwise, there are elements that may not make complete sense.

* * *

**Chapter 17: Honesty**

"It's not a door that uses a key," Bracken said, waving Seth closer. "You'll have to open it," he said, stepping aside to allow his girlfriend's brother a better look.

"How am I supposed to do that?" Seth asked, seeing that there was no notch or knob or anything aside from a distinct outline of a sealed door. His brow was furrowed as he analyzed the smooth stone wall for any sign of weakness.

"This mission was uniquely suited to you, Seth," Bracken stated. "You're a shadow charmer. I'm a unicorn – this door will respond only to darkness, not light."

"Great," Seth answered sarcastically, feeling along the wall for a catch or anything.

"I'm pretty sure that if Bracken said it's a magic door, then there's probably not a switch to force it open," Warren spoke up after watching Seth fumble around for a few moments. "I'd suggest using magic to open it."

"Yeah, because I have such a great handle on that," Seth retorted. "I don't know how to do anything on purpose aside from shadow walk."

"Try speaking to it," Bracken suggested. He motioned his hand upward and the ball of light he held in it rose to the ceiling of the dark cavern and cast an eerie glow over the space they currently occupied. "Judging by the trolls we've encountered so far, maybe it'd respond to Duggish."

"You're _how_ old and you haven't picked up Duggish yet? Isn't that kind of a basic magical language?" Vanessa piped up from where she was leaned against the side of one of the cave walls. She was idly examining her fingernails.

"Creature of light," Bracken said flatly and without further explanation.

"Enough, you two," Warren stated, cutting off any potential response. "Don't make me pull this quest over."

"Seriously, I don't know how to speak Duggish on purpose," Seth chimed in. "Any other ideas?"

"Concentrate, Seth," Bracken insisted. "One of the ways I was able to teach Kendra to start speaking fairy languages on purpose was to first speak in them to her. Try focusing on a memory when you were speaking Duggish and when you've got the image clearly set in your mind, say 'open.' That should trigger you to speak in that language. The spell enchanting this door doesn't appear to be very complex."

Seth closed his eyes and pictured his venture into Grunhold when he'd retrieved the unicorn horn from the Centaurian maze. After concentrating for a few minutes on that memory, and still with his eyes closed, he said, "Open."

Nothing happened.

"Well, that definitely wasn't English," Warren said, patting Seth's shoulder encouragingly. "Good job."

"Next idea, Unicorn?" Vanessa asked mockingly.

"Why don't _you_ provide a suggestion?" Bracken responded instantly.

"You guys – cut down on the negativity," Warren commanded. "You could hack at the tension in here with a knife."

Bracken murmured something under his breath and Vanessa perked up immediately, pushing herself to a standing position. "What did you say?" she asked, eyes narrowed in a glare at him.

The unicorn shook his head and returned his attention to Seth.

"Don't ignore me," Vanessa demanded.

"Are you good for anything aside from sarcastic comments and pestering?" Bracken asked, staring back at her.

"Stop it!" Seth demanded, drawing Vasilis from its sheath at his side. "You are both acting like immature children. Get over your petty grudges and move on. None of us want to be here – let's just get this over with and get out of here!" Bracken and Vanessa hushed as Vasilis simmered red at the edges of its blade. Seth rounded on the door and shouted, "Open up, you stupid door!"

The door remained stubbornly closed, which only exacerbated Seth's foul mood. He let out what sounded like a battle cry and slammed Vasilis against it, not quite expecting the result he received: the door turned shadowy and see-through, and what was behind it made Seth's stomach drop. Wraiths. A lot of them. Fifteen or twenty if he had to guess. Seth motioned for his three companions to stand behind him as he called into the semi-visible void, "Which of you will aid us in our quest?"

The wraiths stopped their aimless ambling about and rushed toward the door, seemingly unable to pass beyond it. Seth could hear their whispers.

"He can hear us," one said.

"He can see us," another one commented.

"Master," several murmured.

"Free us," one called.

"I will free you on my conditions," Seth responded.

"He bluffs," a solitary voice stated. Quite a few of the others began mumbling similar messages of disbelief.

"I'm not lying," Seth said.

The voices hushed until one spoke up, "What reward could you possibly give that would be sufficient?"

Seth's eyes narrowed. "You doubt my word? Very well. In exchange for your obedience, you will not be destroyed," he challenged. "Disobedience will lead to death." He held up his sword and the wraiths backed away from the semi-transparent entryway. Bracken drew his horn and transformed it into a pearlescent sword shortly afterward as well.

"You dare challenge us?" one of the wraiths spoke.

"Let them pass," two voices murmured.

"Free us," a few whispered.

"You've lost your opportunity for freedom," Seth responded sternly. "I am not in the mood for bargaining or second chances. Let us pass without incident and your lives will remain in tact in exchange."

Vanessa and Warren passed significant looks back and forth before they looked ahead to where the sudden sound of stone grinding on stone originated from – the door was sliding open.

"I apologize for my disobedience," one of the wraiths spoke up.

"We will pass safely through your domain," Seth answered. "Failure to adhere to my demand will result in your immediate death. You will remain in this cavern – escape will not be allowed."

"Freedom," the word passed from wraith to wraith. Their voices held longing in them.

"Perhaps the next master of darkness who passes through here will be more forgiving than I," Seth stated. "Part for us."

Bracken whispered something in Seth's ear and then they both nodded their heads.

"My companion is feeling merciful," Seth began. "We will give one of you the opportunity to be our guide. As a reward for your assistance, you will be granted freedom from this place and put to service elsewhere. The same rules as before apply, however – any treachery to myself or my companions will result in your immediate death. Are any of you willing to comply with our terms, in exchange for an exit from here?"

Three wraiths rushed forward while the rest remained behind. "Choose me, Master," the largest said. "I will serve you."

"Choose me," the other two stated at the same time.

"I choose the first," Seth said.

The other two wraiths returned to their positions with the others.

"Thank you, Master," the selected wraith whispered.

"One wrong move and my sword will have the final say," Seth warned.

"I understand, Master."

"Very well. We seek the treasure from this mountain. Lead on."

Once the small group had entered and left the small area where the wraiths had been crowded into through another magical door on the opposite side of the room, Vanessa whispered in Warren's ear, "Didn't that seem a little… _evil_ for him?"

Warren nodded. "Keep an eye on him," he barely whispered back.

Bracken looked back at them and nodded his head as well, signifying that he heard their exchange and agreed with them.

Vanessa begrudgingly supposed that the unicorn's presence was good for at least one thing – with him nearby, magical fear didn't have any affect on her and Warren. She suspected his horn-sword would be able to destroy a good number of dark creatures as well.

Silence encased the group until the wraith came to a sudden halt.

"What are you—" Seth began, but he was cut off by the sound of a loud baby crying. A deep scent of flowers pervaded the area, which confused Seth. The wraith bolted back the way it had come from and Seth drew his sword in preparation for whatever awaited the group. As the smell of rotting flesh replaced the floral aroma, Bracken covered his nose and mouth and shouted, "It's a pontianak! Run – to the far side of the chamber!"

Seth looked behind him to make sure that Warren and Vanessa were coming, then he booked it for the opposite end of the area they currently occupied. He had no idea what a pontianak was, but assumed it was not something to trifle with.

A softer cry sounded and Bracken stopped running and whirled around in time to meet the form of a ghostly female with his sword. She had long, dark hair and sharp teeth – she looked almost vampiric in Seth's opinion. Her form vaguely reminded him of Ephira, but this was clearly a distinctly different creature.

The pontianak turned away from Bracken when he brandished his sword, and she stayed clear of the sheathed Vasilis. Instead she lunged toward Vanessa who had also drawn her own sword, but it appeared that the pontianak didn't care about the narcoblix's non-magical weapon. Warren ran to Vanessa's side right as his wife began to shudder under the pontianak's influence, however with one wave of the ghostly woman's arm he was sent flying thirty feet away. Vanessa fell to the floor and her body began seizing as the pontianak drew closer and closer to her.

Bracken ran to Vanessa as Warren was struggling to get back to his feet. The unicorn dove toward Vanessa and pushed her out of the way before the pontianak could make contact with her, then rolled over and slashed at her with his sword. The woman screamed and changed directions to again pursue Vanessa.

Seth drew Vasilis and the blade appeared to be on fire as it pulled him toward the attacking creature. "Leave her alone!" Seth yelled. The ghost didn't pay attention to him.

"Aim for her neck!" Bracken shouted as he again ran to protect Vanessa. "She has to be beheaded."

Vasilis collided with the pontianak mere moments later and the woman shrieked in anger and pain as she rounded on Seth and clawed his arm on her way down to the ground. Seth finished her off and her body disintegrated in flames in a matter of moments. He chose not to sheathe Vasilis and instead kept a wary eye out for any other potential foes to show themselves as he ran toward where Vanessa was laying unconscious on the ground. Warren was crouched over her with avid concern showing on his face as Bracken tried to examine her.

"Move, Warren," Bracken commanded, pushing Warren softly so that he would sit next to her and give the unicorn room to make sure she wasn't injured. Warren complied, and Bracken's hand started to glow a soft blue as he hovered it a few inches over Vanessa's body.

"She'll be alright," Bracken said after only a few seconds. "She has sustained no lasting damage."

His eyebrows quirked up as his hand stopped glowing. "Just what I thought. Do you have anything to say?" he asked Warren as he sat back and looked at his friend.

Warren was confused. "What are you talking about?"

Bracken narrowed his eyes and said, "I think it's time to wake her up." He touched her forehead and spoke in some language neither Warren nor Seth could understand. Vanessa's eyes fluttered open and she looked around fearfully, as though expecting the vampiric ghost to appear in front of her at any moment.

"You're fine," Bracken said as she turned her head toward him questioningly. "There is no threat at the present moment. We have to talk."

"She's barely just woken up," Warren protested. "Can you give her a minute to breathe?"

"In this case? No." The unicorn was obviously perturbed.

Vanessa sat up. "What has your panties all in a bunch?" she asked, still shaking from her close encounter only a few minutes prior. Warren tried to steady her and she waved him off.

"Are you going to tell them, or am I?" Bracken half-asked, half-stated.

She looked embarrassed. Her reaction surprised both Warren and Seth – they were expecting an argument to erupt between the two. "Now isn't the time—"

"You're right, the perfect time would have been _before_ we came here," Bracken said. "Do you even understand what happened? Do you even _know_ what a pontianak _is?_"

Silence pervaded the room. Vanessa was stunned but she quickly found her tongue again. "How was anyone supposed to know one of those would be _here_? I'm here to help as much as you are, Unicorn."

Bracken shook his head and Warren butted in, "Will someone please explain what is going on?"

"Yeah – and explain what a pontianak is, too," Seth added.

"A pontianak is a creature that kills men and feasts on their bodies. _Men_," Bracken reiterated. "They only go after women if—"

"I'm pregnant," Vanessa blurted out, glaring at Bracken. "I just found out only a few days ago and I wanted to wait until after we were all home to announce it. But there it is, out in the open for everyone to know. Thanks, by the way. I really wanted my news to be a happy experience, not something to make the mission more stressful than necessary."

Warren was speechless. "Whoa," Seth responded. "Umm… are you sure you should be here?"

"Yes, I'm sure!" she answered. "Seth, regardless of what anyone might think, I actually _care_ about you. I have a lot I can add. I'm smart and I'm quick on my feet. If that _thing_ hadn't gone straight for me, I would have been able to hold my own just fine."

"You're _pregnant?_" Warren asked. "And you didn't _tell_ me?"

"I found out the day that Scott… well… I thought it was bad timing to say anything," she explained.

Warren kissed her quickly and said, "Listen to me." Once he was sure he had her full attention, he continued, "I have never been more proud of you. And I can't explain how I'm feeling at the idea of being a father. Give me a few days for that to sink in and I will be shouting from rooftops, I'm sure. But we are in a _very_ dangerous situation."

"I'm pregnant, Warren. I haven't turned into glass."

"I know that," he said. "But listen to me. You aren't just watching out for your own skin now – there are two of you. And there are a _lot_ of creatures out there that like to prey on expectant mothers. I don't have to start listing them, do I?"

"There are plenty of creatures that like to prey on _anyone_," she responded. "I promised my help to Seth, and I intend to carry through with my promise."

Warren started shaking out of frustration. Bracken stood up and decided to scout ahead a little ways. Seth spoke up. "Vanessa can stay," he said.

"What!?" Warren shouted.

"Think about it, Warren," Seth began. "We're deep inside of a mountain in Malaysia with a wall of dark creatures behind us. Bracken and I would have to escort you both out, and we don't have the time. We've got to be close to the end at this point."

"You're right," Warren relented after a moment. Directing his attention back to his wife, he said, "You hang back with me. We'll let Seth and Bracken do the heavy adventuring."

"I can take care of myself," she responded stubbornly.

"You almost died just now," Warren reminded her. "You're still shivering."

"I'm fine," she insisted.

Bracken walked back into the room and announced, "We're at the end. The next room is the treasure chamber. It is guarded by something dark, although I wasn't able to determine what it was."

"We're coming," Vanessa announced, pushing herself up to standing and walking over to the unicorn. "Thank you for ruining my surprise," she stated.

Bracken grasped her arm to prevent her from venturing further. "Look, Vanessa," he began. "If I found out that my wife was pregnant and in extreme danger, I would do anything in my power to protect her. I'd imagine that Warren agrees with me. I didn't force you to speak because I find a weird sense of enjoyment in spoiling all of your news – I put you in that situation because full disclosure is the only way to go into a mission and be able to trust each other through it. Now that we know there are five members of this group instead of four, we can appropriately accommodate."

She yanked her arm out of his hand and said, "Thanks, but I still don't appreciate it."

Bracken rolled his eyes and motioned Seth forward as Vanessa sauntered away from the entry into the next room and stood next to Warren. "Seth, whatever force is in there is likely to be highly intelligent. It's possible that we can enter the room and retrieve what we need without incident."

Seth nodded his head roughly. "Alright," he said. "Intelligence versus brute force at this point, got it." He sheathed Vasilis and the scratches on his arm started to sting without the influence of the sword coursing through his body. He clutched at his arm and Bracken immediately reached out, hand aglow like it was when he was examining Vanessa.

"I didn't realize you were injured," he said. "I'm sorry for overlooking that. The good thing is pontianaks do not have venomous nails – a few moments here, and you will be good as new."

Seth's skin felt like it was simultaneously crawling and burning as he watched the shallow wounds close and the scars fade. "Amazing," he said after Bracken was done, holding his arm up to check it out.

"Are you ready?" Bracken asked, holding his hand out in front of him to let Seth go first.

"Now is as good a time as any," Seth agreed. "By the way," he said, turning around to make sure that Warren and Vanessa both heard him as well, "I was harsh with the wraiths because I'm dealing with a lot right now. My dad just died and I'd rather be at home with my family than halfway around the world, exploring this stupid cave. Also, I couldn't think of a reward to give them that would satisfy fifteen or so wraiths without setting them free on the nearby villagers. I heard you whispering earlier."

"It _was_ a good bargaining chip," Warren said. "You had us convinced, too."

* * *

Seth opened the door to the treasure chamber carefully. He could sense a sinister presence – he couldn't tell if it was a being or a curse – as well, but whatever it was didn't show itself. Yet.

The room was a decent size, although not as large as Seth had imagined. When the Singing Sisters had said he would be treasure hunting, he'd pictured an ancient Egyptian burial chamber and imagined a large room like that, filled with gold and precious gems. This room had _some_ gold, but mostly it held artifacts.

Seth entered the chamber and Bracken followed closely behind him. Warren and Vanessa stood in the hallway, and Bracken signaled for them to stay put while he and Seth scanned the place.

The amulet they were looking for was hanging on the far wall. There didn't appear to be anything protecting it.

"Something's wrong," Seth said. "It shouldn't be this easy, should it?"

"An amulet that prevents the wearer from dying of anything but natural causes and simultaneously grants an extended life?" Bracken asked. "No, I would imagine it would _not_ be easy to retrieve something like that." He narrowed his eyes and deeply scanned the room. "I don't sense any spells protecting it or anything else in this room aside from at the immediate entrance, for that matter. Did the Sisters give you any warnings?"

"They just said that there would be difficulties to overcome and told me where to find the amulet. That's all. Oh, and one of them fawned over me a little and another one of them sounded like she'd be happy to see me fail and die."

Bracken furrowed his brow in concentration. "I suppose we should just take it, then, and find out if there are consequences afterward." They both looked at each other skeptically and walked forward toward the charm, ready to draw their swords at the first sign of trouble.

On the way to the amulet, Bracken stopped to look at one of the other items in the chamber closely. "What's up?" Seth asked.

Bracken shook his head in amazement and said while smiling, "It's the potential answer to a huge hurdle in my personal life," he responded vaguely, pocketing whatever he had picked up. There was no consequence to Bracken's actions, so Seth shrugged his shoulders and figured that maybe the treasure wasn't cursed after all. He still didn't plan on taking any souvenirs.

Sure enough, when he pulled the amulet off the wall, nothing happened. He draped it around his neck and then turned to Bracken and said, "Well, that was anticlimactic. I guess we can leave now." Bracken shrugged his shoulders in response, but remained vigilant for any possible threats that may yet appear.

Seth left the room and held the door open for Bracken – but when the unicorn tried to follow, what appeared to be lightning struck him and continued to course through his body. Bracken cried out in agony and Seth ran back into the room in a panic and knelt down beside the unicorn who was still suffering as electricity jumped through his arms, legs and torso. Without hesitating, Seth pulled the amulet off and did his best to drape it around the unicorn's neck while avoiding getting electrocuted himself.

Once the amulet touched Bracken's chest, the electricity fled the unicorn's body and he laid on the ground shaking and gasping for a long while. Seth wasn't sure whether it was safe to touch him or not, so he maintained a reasonable distance away from his friend and hoped beyond hope that Bracken would be alright. After at least a full minute with no sign of electricity anywhere, Seth crept forward and prodded Bracken's shoulder. Nothing happened to Seth, so he crouched over Bracken and checked for a heartbeat. He failed to find one.

That was all Seth could handle. "What am I supposed to tell Kendra!?" he yelled at the unicorn. "We just lost our dad. You're not next! Not here, not now! Remember what she said!? She said we both had to go back to her! Come back!" Seth shook Bracken's shoulders. "You're supposed to be virtually invincible! What's wrong with you? You're going to let a stupid spell take you out!? What about your family! What about all of us!? Huh?"

He grabbed Bracken's horn and started to poke him with it. "Fix yourself! Heal! _Come on!_" Seth continued to yell, desperation sliding into his voice.

The door to the room slid open and Seth heard footsteps behind him. "Seth," Warren's voice interrupted. "Vanessa said to give Bracken his horn."

"Right, because she's _totally_ got his best interests at heart," Seth responded. Still, he complied because he didn't have any better idea. He'd take pretty much any suggestion right now.

Seth placed the horn in Bracken's right hand and crossed his fingers. After a few seconds, the horn started to glow. Seth's attention was completely focused on the welfare of his friend – more like his _brother_ – and hope started to well up inside of him. Bracken's body started to glow a faint blue soon after, which intensified as more time continued to pass. Warren and Seth watched as slowly, Bracken rolled onto his side and rested for a little while before pushing himself up into a sitting position.

"Remind me… to thank Vanessa," he said. His voice was raspy. "That was something I don't want to do again."

"What happened!?" Seth demanded. He was trying to avoid crying tears of anger and relief – he'd already cried enough tears for the rest of his life in recent history as far as he was concerned.

"I believe the curse will let anyone inside, but will not let them leave unless they are wearing the amulet," Bracken surmised. "Therefore, I suggest that we take turns leaving."

"Are you up to walking?" Warren asked.

Bracken shook his head. "I need a few more minutes," he said. "That was the closest to death I've come in a long time. I'm a little rattled."

"I think we're all a little rattled," Warren responded. "The sooner we get out of here, the better."

"I completely agree," Bracken said. He leaned against a wall in the room and closed his eyes. His horn and body continued to glow. "Sorry," he spoke up after a length of time had passed. "Healing goes much faster if another unicorn is handling the process. It's more difficult to heal yourself than it is to heal other people. Which is good and bad – it forces us to rely on each other from time to time, but in situations like this one..."

"Are you alright?" Seth asked. The break in event and conversation had allowed him to calm back down again.

"Yes," he said. "Not one-hundred percent, but well enough to help get us all out of here. I'll go first." He paused and looked at Seth. "I didn't do that on purpose. You understand that, right?"

"I know," Seth answered. "I was just… freaked out."

Bracken patted Seth's shoulder and said, "You thought quickly back there. If you hadn't put the amulet on me… Well. Thank you." He looked forward toward the exit and said, "Here goes nothing. Let's hope it doesn't happen again."

The unicorn was able to pass through the door with no problems this time around. He smiled and tossed the amulet to Seth, who walked through without issue as well. Seth then tossed the amulet to Warren, who was also able to exit.

As the group started to head back toward the entrance of the cave, Seth realized that Bracken had hung back to walk with Vanessa. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but he did see them stop walking temporarily and shake hands. They even looked like they were maybe smiling a little bit.

Seth knew his heart would heal. He knew things would get better. And he was beginning to understand how deeply he felt for his companions. Regardless of blood relation, they were all family to him.

Family. He idly wondered if he would come home to a mountain of brownies again. The thought made him smile for the first time in what felt like forever.

* * *

There will be lots of Bracken/Kendra fluff in the next chapter. I had to bring Seth back for a while.

I hope these chapters came across how I tried to portray them. I did what I did for many reasons, lots of which will come up in future chapters.

Until next time!

AerinM


	18. Agreement

Much awaited chapter here. :)

* * *

**Chapter 18: Agreement**

_Kendra,_

_I'm so proud of you. Congratulations on your graduation. You'll always be my best girl (don't tell your mother I said that)._

_Love,_

_Dad_

_P.S. As far as choices go, I guess _he's _okay. Don't tell your mother I said that, either._

_P.P.S. I will never verbally acknowledge what I've revealed in this note beyond the whole "I'm proud of you and I love you" part, so don't even ask._

Kendra laughed a little as she placed the note from her father next to her on the bed. Her mother had given her a small box in private and said that her father had wanted to give it to her today. After taking the package from her mother, Kendra had ducked into the hotel room they were sharing so that she could be alone for a few minutes while she opened it.

Today had been her graduation day. Her entire family and Bracken had turned out for the ceremony, and she had been happy to show them around the town she'd spent the past four years living in afterward. She felt a clear sense of accomplishment and couldn't stop smiling as she crossed the platform to receive her degree and shake hands with the dean.

A few of her college friends – including her roommate, Julie – had organized a trip to the river after the ceremony and intended to stay the night. Kendra's mother had wanted to tag along – "I promise I won't follow you around everywhere; it just sounds peaceful," she'd said – and so they were now staying in a hotel room with a view of the Stillwater River, not far from her school's campus. The rest of her family and Bracken had left for Fablehaven after they'd all had dinner together at a nice restaurant in town.

Evening was falling and stars were making their appearance in the sky as Kendra sat on the bed she'd claimed and opened the gift from her father. Inside was a thin, white gold bracelet with dark pink tourmaline stones embedded in the metal – her birthstone. She smiled as she put the bracelet on and admired it. He really knew her.

She missed him dearly and thought about him every day. It'd been a little over two months since she'd been woken up and rushed to the hospital and her heart still hurt, but she was no longer angry. Some days were harder to get through than others, true, but together with her family she was starting to move forward.

Kendra allowed herself a few minutes to dry her eyes and hide the note from her father somewhere it'd be safe – she never wanted to lose it. Once she was ready to join her friends at the fire pit they'd said they were going to light, she shrugged on a light coat and opened the door to her hotel room.

Before she stepped outside the room, she noticed that a rose was lying on the doormat with a note attached to the stem. She thought it was odd and looked around to see if there was anyone who may have dropped it, but didn't see anyone. Bending down to pick up the rose, she decided to read the note.

All it said was _Front Desk._ She quirked an eyebrow upward, then decided to stop by the front desk and see if they could shed some light on why she'd received a flower with such a weird note.

As she opened the door to the main lobby of the hotel, the concierge smiled at her and said, "I have your next clue right here." He stepped around the main desk and gave her another rose, which had another note tied to it.

"I think these are for someone else," Kendra said.

"No, they're definitely for you," he responded. She looked confused.

"What's going on?" she asked.

The concierge shrugged his shoulders and continued grinning. "My advice to you is to play along and find out."

"Okay then," she answered skeptically. Despite her tone of voice, butterflies started to fill her stomach. The next note read, _Car._

She walked to where her mom's car was parked and found another rose resting on the windshield. This one read, _Dock._ She turned her head around and found a boat dock nearby. Once she arrived there, she found another rose lying on top of one of the boats that was tethered to the dock. The next note held the word, _Elevator._ Kendra rolled her eyes as she realized that the only elevator she knew of in the immediate vicinity was _back_ inside the lobby.

As she re-entered the lobby, the concierge again smiled at her. She pressed the button for the elevator and waited a minute before the doors opened. Inside the elevator was a fifth rose and a note that said, _Roof._ She pressed the button on the panel that would take her to the roof and as the doors closed she wondered idly what could possibly be at the end of the rose trail, then froze as she wondered if Kyle – one of her classmates who had expressed interest in her repeatedly over the past couple of years and had done so again earlier that day – was behind this. She crossed her fingers and hoped that that wasn't the case; otherwise she'd have an awkward conversation to look forward to.

The elevator doors opened and as Kendra stepped out onto the roof, she found a short table with room for two people to eat at and soft cushions to sit on. It was set with a deep red table cloth, two plates and silverware, two champagne glasses, and several candles as well as a vase with more roses in it.

"I'm glad you were able to follow the clues alright," a voice said to her left. She turned her head and noticed Bracken, who was holding an ice bucket that had a bottle of something in it.

Relief flooded her body as she realized Kyle was _not_ the one who had orchestrated all of this.

"What are you doing here?" Kendra asked, smiling at her boyfriend in surprise.

"I wanted to spend a special evening with you," he responded. "It's not every day that you graduate from college, you know." He put the ice bucket down on the ground next to the table and then walked over to where she was, grasping both of her hands in his. "You've accomplished a lot. Tonight is for you." He kissed her softly, then led her over to the table and motioned for her to have a seat on one of the plush cushions. A soft breeze drifted lazily through the air as Kendra made herself comfortable and looked around at everything Bracken had set up. He was so good to her – she felt lucky to have him in her life.

"This is beautiful," she said, motioning at the table setting. "We had dinner earlier, though. Are you still hungry?"

Bracken chuckled. "This is dessert," he replied. "You arrived a couple of minutes before I expected you to – please bear with me while I finish getting ready."

Kendra smiled cheerfully as she watched him briefly bustle about. He turned on some soft piano music from the CD player he had apparently borrowed from the hotel – their logo was emblazoned on the side of it – then retrieved a silver platter that had a matching silver lid over the top of it and brought it to the table. As he removed the lid, he revealed a couple of fruit tarts underneath and placed one on each of the plates on the table.

"There we go," he said as he pulled the empty silver platter and lid away from the table and deposited them neatly on the ground near the CD player. He then took a seat across from Kendra and grinned playfully at her, to which she couldn't help but laugh a little.

Bracken reached for the bottle in the ice bucket and Kendra saw that it was carbonated apple cider – "fake champagne" as he'd called it once. He pulled off the cap on the bottle and poured some into each of their glasses, then replaced the bottle into the bucket to keep it chilled. Lifting his glass, he motioned for her to pick hers up as well. "Congratulations, Kendra," he said. "Here's to a huge accomplishment made and a future of others to come." They clinked their glasses together as she replied, "Thank you… for all of this."

"I love this kind of stuff," he said, waving his hand around. "You should know that by now."

She did know that. He'd made it clear over the years that he enjoyed doting on her and making her feel special. His frequent outward expressions of affection always wound up ultimately providing more fuel to the ever-growing fire of her love for him. She enjoyed returning his signs of affection as well; finding ways to make him happy had become a hobby of hers, whether it was by telling him funny stories or taking him to fun places for dates, or even baking something for him to try out.

"I'm allowed to say thank you," she stated as she picked up her fork and cut into the tart in front of her. It was delicious – a soft crust filled with sweet vanilla custard and topped with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. Marla had made one a couple of years ago and ever since Bracken had tasted it, he'd determined that this was his favorite dessert; while he didn't often eat it, it made sense to her why he'd choose it for a special evening. She liked them too, at any rate.

"Kendra, I have to deter to a quick moment of business," Bracken stated after several minutes of idle banter and talk.

She was all ears as she looked at him expectantly. "What is it?" she asked.

"Mother would like to speak with you again the next time you're at Fablehaven," he answered, grinning. "She said she wants to give you a graduation gift as well."

Kendra put her fork down and responded, "She doesn't have to give me anything."

"Yes, I know, but she loves you."

"The last time I spoke with her, she gave me the ability to see auras," Kendra answered. "What is she planning on this time?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly.

"I just don't want her to spend too much energy on me. I know it weakens her to continuously give me new abilities."

Bracken quirked an eyebrow. "The aura thing wasn't a new ability," he answered. "She just helped unlock what you already had in you. Trust me – the largest amount of energy she will ever expound on you has already been done."

"I just worry about her," Kendra responded. "How's your father doing?"

"He shows signs of improvement steadily," Bracken answered. "He still hasn't woken up, but the healers aren't worried. Plus, several more male imps have reverted back into fairies. None of them have fully woken after going through the transition, but Mother says the sheer fact that more male fairies are emerging is a positive sign of Father's pending recovery."

"I'm glad," she answered. "It'll be interesting to see how the added dynamic of male fairies will change the females' attitudes once he's awake, don't you think?"

Bracken laughed. "I would prepare for a party," he answered. As the next song began, he stood up and pulled Kendra to her feet. "Dance with me?" he asked once she was standing, although by that time he'd already pulled her close and started leading her to the music.

"Looks like I don't have much of a choice in the matter," she grinned. "For the record, I wouldn't have turned you down."

"I know," he answered. "I'm too smooth for you to refuse."

"You've officially been hanging out with Seth too much," she responded coolly.

"Well, you haven't been home," he justified. "Seth is like the little brother I never had."

"It must have been hard for you, growing up with so many women around," Kendra teased and patted his back. "Poor baby."

He cocked his head to the side as if in thought. "It's probably why I'm such a die-hard romantic at heart," he answered. They both laughed at that one and he spun her around. As he pulled her back into his arms, he kissed her forehead.

When the song ended, they walked over to the edge of the roof and sat on the ledge there. The sky was lit up with stars and a bright moon. Kendra watched the sky as a satellite passed through her field of vision, then realized that Bracken was staring at her with an unreadable expression on his face. "Umm… Can I help you?" she asked.

"Sorry. I was spacing out there," he responded, shaking his head and smiling embarrassedly.

"I could tell. Penny for your thoughts?"

"I never understood that phrase," he answered. "Does it mean I have to pay you a penny in order for you to listen to me, or do you give _me_ a penny in exchange for the knowledge of what I'm thinking about?"

"I've… never really thought about it," she said. "Does it really matter?"

"No. I was just stalling."

"Stalling what? Why?"

"I love you," Bracken answered. "And I want you to be with me forever." Kendra's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. He pushed himself off of the ledge and back onto the roof, then pulled her to her feet and knelt down in front of her. "I'm beyond lucky to have ever met you. You've brought me so much joy and peace. And no matter how much you give, you always want to give more. You're selfless, you care about everyone around you, and you are virtuous to the core. Integrity, honesty and courage are your banners. I couldn't ask for someone more perfect for me, and trust me – I've spent many years looking. I'm so glad to have finally found you." He paused for a quick moment and continued. "I never thought anything good would come out of me being in a deep, dark prison for so many terrible years. But then you happened – Kendra, I would patiently relive all of those miserable years if it meant I could have you for the rest of my life. I want to marry you."

Kendra was speechless. She had not expected this, at least not tonight at any rate. Her thoughts raced at the speed of light as she gaped at him and had to fight back both the urge to burst into tears and simultaneously start laughing out of happy surprise.

Bracken grinned as he could feel her overwhelming emotions through his contact with her hands. He stood up and embraced her, holding her close. "I love you," he said as he kissed the top of her head. "Please say you'll be my bride."

Kendra couldn't decide what type of a reaction to have and before she knew it, she was laughing through tears. "Yes," she answered. "Yes, I'll marry you. Yes!"

He picked her up and spun her around, then kissed her regardless of her tears as he sat her back down. Bracken couldn't stop smiling. Pulling her away from him for a moment, he reached into his pocket and extracted a ring – a white gold band with a dark pink tourmaline stone as the elevated centerpiece and small diamonds all around it. Kendra gasped when she saw it – it matched the bracelet her father had given her perfectly.

"I talked to him at the beginning of the year," Bracken said, seemingly reading her mind as he pulled her close again once he'd slipped the ring on her finger. "I told him I planned to propose to you on your graduation day. Your mother was there, too."

Kendra couldn't respond – sheer emotion had overcome her ability to speak as she connected the dots.

_P.S. As far as choices go, I guess _he's _okay. Don't tell your mother I said that, either._

_P.P.S. I will never verbally acknowledge what I've revealed in this note beyond the whole "I'm proud of you and I love you" part, so don't even ask._

Her father had _approved_. That's all she could think – he had approved! She'd felt slightly torn between Bracken and her father for a very long time and relief flooded her to know that her father had actually been alright with Bracken, even if he never would have willingly admitted it.

"He had one condition – he wanted you to be able to wear his bracelet without you having the excuse to take it off because it clashed with your ring. Considering that I had been half expecting him to throw me out of the house instead of talk to me, I was more than happy to accommodate that wish of his. Apparently he'd given you a necklace before? He kept going on about how he didn't appreciate the one I gave you because you rarely wore his. Your mother kept telling him to shut up about it."

Kendra was a mess. The story Bracken told was making her laugh and simultaneously pulling at her heart strings.

"He loved you more than anything," Bracken stated. "I promised to do the same."

"I have – have never laughed and… cried at the same time," Kendra said through shuddering breaths. "It's like I don't know what to feel, so I'm feeling everything all at once."

"Good feelings though, right?" he asked, smiling at her.

"The best," she responded. She kissed him quickly and then they both returned to the ledge of the roof.

"A long time ago," Bracken began as they stood next to each other and looked out over the river, "I promised you that when I proposed, the whole world would know."

She looked at him quizzically, not understanding where this was going.

"I wasn't lying," he said. He grasped her left hand in his and responded, "This is the part where everyone finds out." He lifted her hand to his face, inhaled deeply, whispered "I choose her" in the secret fairy language and slowly exhaled across the ring on her finger.

Kendra's spine tingled. She could tell that he'd just done something magical, although she wasn't exactly sure what.

"By morning there won't be a single magical being who doesn't know that the son of the Fairy Queen has found his mate ," he announced proudly.

* * *

The next evening found Bracken in the courtyard outside of his family's quarters in the fairy kingdom. He was sitting on the ground and appeared to be deep in thought; his first horn was grasped in his left hand and his right hand cradled three small golden seeds.

"Bracken?"

He turned around and saw his mother walking toward him. As she drew close to him, she placed a hand on his shoulder. He stood up and faced her.

"What do you have in your hand?" she asked. He opened his right hand and showed her the seeds. She looked only mildly surprised to see them there. "Where did you find them?"

"Inside a mountain in Malaysia," he answered. "When I was helping Seth retrieve Jorak's Amulet. They were just laying on a shelf – I couldn't believe it."

"May I?" she asked, extending her hand. Bracken gave her the seeds and she examined them.

"They aren't cursed," she said after a short time. "Indeed, they are authentic." She gave them back to her son. "What do you intend to do with them?"

He held up his left hand, where his first horn was held.

"I see." The Queen looked off into the sunset for a long moment before speaking again. "You do understand this will effectively destroy your first horn, correct?"

"More like transform it into something else, but yes," Bracken replied seriously.

She returned her gaze to meet his and smiled at him as she reached out and placed her hand against the side of his face. "You have my blessing," she stated. "I'm proud of you."

"Do you think it will work?" Bracken asked.

The Queen nodded her head slowly as she turned around and began to walk away. "Perhaps more effectively than you understand at this time," she said in parting. "Your sacrifice could very well have more repercussions than you can see. Positive repercussions, I daresay."

Bracken watched as his mother left him alone again, then knelt to the ground. He stared at his first horn and then whispered a few unintelligible words to it before using it to dig a hole into the dirt. Once he had a hole that was deep enough to insert the entire horn and cover it by a good two or three inches, he muttered a few more words and deposited the horn into the ground along with the golden seeds and covered them back up with the soil he had piled to the side.

The unicorn then withdrew his second horn and drew a circle around the hole he had just covered up and concentrated. His horn glowed a soft greenish hue and a minute later when he opened his eyes, there was a small sprout protruding from the ground. Bracken smiled softly and reached for a bowl of water he had carried outside previously and slowly poured the water around the tiny plant.

* * *

I kept trying to fit in a comment from Kendra that had something to do with, "What, are you going to post a viral video to YouTube or something?" when Bracken was talking about telling the whole world, but I couldn't seem to make it jive with the rest of the passage so I left it out. Haha. :) Oh well... I'll have other opportunities to insert some of Kendra's dry humor.

I hope you enjoyed! More fluff to come soon in future chapters. :) I'm afraid the next chapter likely won't be up for a few weeks per my normal schedule.


	19. Eternity

**Chapter 19: Eternity**

"What's that?" Bracken asked, approaching Kendra from the kitchen.

Kendra froze. The letter in her hands held information of great importance to her; she'd been unable to resist opening it, even though she'd wanted to wait until after she'd read its contents before sharing the news with her fiancée. He'd been in the living room with her brother and her mom, talking about wedding stuff and whatever else they were talking about, when Raxtus had dropped by at the back door with an envelope and a leather satchel for Kendra. She'd been rummaging through the fridge looking for a soda at the time and had spoken to the dragon in hushed whispers at the door before he nodded in understanding and quietly flew off so as not to attract anyone's attention, leaving the items behind.

She knew Bracken wouldn't approve. They'd had this discussion before, just once, and he'd made his opinion clear on the subject.

But she had her own opinion as well.

"It's… a letter from Agad," Kendra stated, deciding to own up to it right away instead of have him discover it himself. "Raxtus just dropped it off, along with the bag on the table."

"Oh," he replied. He studied her face intently, then asked, "What does he say?"

"He sends his best wishes and the knapsack is a gift for us, since Navarog torched the backpack I used to have." Kendra looked up thoughtfully and then opened the knapsack she'd laid on top of the dining room table and peered inside. It was too dark to see anything, so she reached her arm inside – sure enough, she couldn't feel the bottom of the bag. A smile graced her features as she said happily, "It's an extra-dimensional storage space!"

Bracken smiled as well and remarked, "That was generous of him. The magic involved with the creation of such items is _not_ simple." He paused and then asked, "What else is in the letter?"

"I haven't finished reading it yet," Kendra said.

"Why not just read it out loud?"

Kendra nodded her head and gritted her teeth. "Alright then," she said, obviously not wanting to read it to him.

"'Regarding other matters we have spoken of previously – Kendra, I am honored to have received your request,'" she began.

"What request was that?" Bracken interrupted.

Kendra stared pointedly at him. "I think you already know the answer to that one."

Bracken rubbed the back of his neck with his hand as his face became serious. "I thought we'd already talked about this."

"Not really. You made your opinion clear, but you didn't even listen to me," she said, immediately on the defensive.

"Kendra, becoming an Eternal is _not_ _healthy_," he stated. "Your life would have to be lived while constantly on the run. Don't you remember how _lonely_ Mark and Civia were?"

Kendra's mouth dropped open. "What are you saying? If I become an Eternal, then you won't stick around?"

"That's not at all what I meant," Bracken said, shaking his head and raising his hands in front of him in a placating gesture. "I want you to be happy. Happy and _safe_," he emphasized.

"So… you just don't want to be with me for longer than my natural lifespan," she challenged.

"That's not what I said either," he responded.

"Then what _are_ you saying, Bracken?" she said. "I want to be with you forever, or as close to forever as I can get. I'm alright with being an obstacle someone has to overcome before they can re-open Zzyzx if it means that I will have you with me for my life." She didn't quite slam the letter onto the tabletop, however she didn't gently place it there either. "But if you're not even willing to _listen_ _to me_ –"

"Wait, Kendra—" Bracken began, grabbing hold of her wrist as she tried to turn away from him.

Seth walked into the room right then and looked at them questioningly. "Are you two alright?" he asked.

Bracken let go of Kendra's wrist and she folded her arms across her chest. "Fine and dandy," she responded unconvincingly.

"Right," Seth's voice dripped with skepticism. "So what is it that has everyone's favorite couple all up in arms with each other?"

Kendra pursed her lips and after a moment of silence, Bracken answered, "She wants to become an Eternal."

Seth looked at his sister significantly. "So you finally asked Agad, then?"

"Wait – you _knew_?" she asked, clearly surprised.

"Duh. That one was pretty obvious," he responded, waving his hand dismissively. "For what my opinion is worth, I'm with Bracken on this one."

"You don't even know _why_ I want to become an Eternal—"

"That one is pretty obvious, too," he interrupted. "Bracken is immortal, you want to be immortal with him and live, quote unquote, 'happily ever after.' The option of him becoming mortal for you would probably be perceived as a proverbial slap in the face to the Fairy Queen and the rest of her family, not to mention all of fairydom. There. Easy peasy."

"You make it sound like my points are trivial," Kendra stated. "They're not."

"No, they're not," Bracken agreed.

"I feel competent for the job," Kendra said. "I'll have _years_ to learn how to tap into my abilities and use them to help protect the world. Tell me how that's a bad thing."

Bracken approached Kendra from behind and placed his hands gently on both of her upper arms. "You'll be a target," he said softly. "'Eternal' is a misnomer. No prison remains closed forever – and _when_ it reopens again, even if it's three million years from now, that means you will have to have been murdered first. Kendra, I… You're right, you'll be a formidable opponent for anyone to overcome, but I don't know how I'll be able to live with myself when I fail to protect you. It's not a matter of _if_, but _when_."

Kendra remained quiet, so Bracken continued speaking. He could tell that she was listening intently.

"Besides, I had rather hoped that you might want a family with me at some point," he stated, still using the same quiet tone of voice. "Do you really want our children to be subjected to the lifestyle an Eternal would demand? Constantly in motion, avoiding close calls, not being able to have friends? What if our children became collateral damage in a skirmish between opposing forces? Can you honestly tell me that you wouldn't blame yourself _or_ me, or that you would be able to move on without issue afterward?"

Her shoulders slumped as the reality of what he was saying was hitting home. "I… I hadn't really thought of that," she answered quietly. She turned her head to try and look at him. "What else can I do, though?" she asked. "I can't ask you to give up your immortality for me. I couldn't… I mean, your mother—"

"She would understand, believe it or not," Bracken said, releasing her arms and moving a little so he could talk with her face-to-face. "I have discussed it with her before and while she wasn't happy about the idea, she recognized that it was my decision to make. As far as the rest of fairydom… Well, to be honest, I really don't care what they think."

"Whoa, so you're really going to give up your immortality?" Seth piped up. When Bracken and Kendra both turned to look at him with glances that seemed to question why he was still there, he said, "Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. I just wanted to add my two cents that Kendra, as your apparently over-protective taller brother, I don't want to see you hurt and living your life in fear or instability. Plus, I'm obligated to interject Dad's opinion on the matter, and that one is a huge N-O, for all of the above reasons. Now that I've said that, I think I'll leave." He then walked back into the living room and left Kendra and Bracken alone.

"He's so weird sometimes," Kendra muttered as he left, although Bracken could tell through the expression on her face that she was feeling affection for her brother as she spoke.

Bracken pulled Kendra into a close embrace as he said, "I know the idea of me retaining my immortality and simply living with you while you age bothers you. It doesn't bother me, but it bothers you."

"That would be a 'yes, definitely,'" she responded.

"And I must admit, after your lifespan was over, I would be in a dismal place." He kissed the top of her head and held her tighter. "Now that I've found you, I don't ever want to lose you… which is why I have an alternate solution to propose."

Kendra pulled away from him until she was able to see his face again while still remaining in his embrace. "What?" she asked simply, her eyes full of eager anticipation mixed with confusion.

"When I was with your brother in Malaysia," he began, "I found a few seeds in the same room as the amulet. There were other magical items as well, but we left those there. I couldn't resist the seeds – Kendra, they will grow into a tree that will produce golden apples."

"You mean like the ones in European mythology?" she asked. Kendra had studied mythology from several different cultures when she was taking university courses, primarily because most of it had turned out to actually be real and she figured she'd be able to make great use out of learning more about the magical world.

"Yes," he answered simply.

"The stories say that golden apples were eaten by the gods, and were the source of their immortality…" she said. "They actually exist?"

"One apple alone won't grant you immortality. You'd have to consistently eat the apples – once every couple of weeks, similar to if you were sipping from the Font of Immortality. But I'm not a novice when it comes to magic, even if my abilities are small in comparison to Mother's." He paused before continuing. "I wasn't going to tell you this next part. Promise me that you won't feel guilty," he said.

"Guilty about what?" she asked.

"I melded the seeds with my first horn before I buried them and prompted the plant to grow," he stated. "The sapling will grow under the influence of my first horn, until the horn has been fully absorbed by the tree."

"What? But won't that destroy your horn? Why would you do that?" Kendra asked, obviously shocked.

Bracken kissed her sweetly and then said, "If I am correct – Mother believes I am correct – whoever eats the apples will share my natural lifespan. It'd also be a one-time requirement, not a regular one, although the apples hold healing properties and could be used for other purposes as well."

"So… you're saying that you found a way for me to live as long as you do?"

"Yes," Bracken answered. "This particular issue has been on my mind since Zzyzx. I couldn't believe my fortune when I found the seeds. I had been planning a separate quest to search the Andes Mountains, following other leads that would hopefully have helped me meet the same goal."

"You gave up your first horn," she reiterated.

"Correct."

"Bracken, I'm so sorry—"

"I told you not to feel guilty."

"That was a huge sacrifice on your part!"

"It was my decision to make."

Kendra's eyes were as wide as dinner plates. "Why would you ever do something like that for _me_?"

"Well now, that's a stupid question coming from a very smart woman," he answered, smiling at her. "I love you, and I want you by my side for as long as I live. If I hadn't been able to find a solution like this, Kendra, I would have gladly forfeited my immortality for you."

She smiled back at him and kissed him in response. How she'd ever done anything good enough to deserve him was beyond her.

"Do you know what you can do to repay me?" he asked playfully.

"What do you have in mind?" she asked, looking at him questioningly.

"Promise me that you'll have one when they're ready," he stated. "Don't let my sacrifice have been in vain."

"Without hesitation," she answered. "When do you think they will be ready?"

"They need some time – it's only been a few months. I planted the seeds almost as soon as you consented to marry me. Trees always take longer to grow than flowers, even with magical assistance." She gave him a significant look and he said, "Right. To answer your question, it will probably be another five years or so before the apples will be sufficiently ripe. As it is, the tree is only barely a sapling at this point."

"Hey guys, did you read the whole letter?" Seth suddenly spoke up, appearing at the table seemingly out of nowhere when he moved to pick the paper up off of the table. Kendra froze up in surprise and remarked, "Don't you _ever_ get tired of sneaking up on people!? I hate it when you do that!"

Seth shrugged his shoulders. "Not really," he responded nonchalantly. "Especially when I keep getting reactions like that one. Anyway – the letter. Did you finish it?"

"No," Bracken said. "We were… a little distracted."

Seth waggled his eyebrows at them. "I can see that."

Kendra blushed and Bracken released her from their embrace while clearing his throat. "What does the rest of the letter say, Seth?" he asked, redirecting the conversation.

"Basically that Kendra is out of the running for Eternal contestants since Agad has already found all of the new ones, hidden the artifacts and completely sealed off Zzyzx. Sorry, Kendra. Except, you know, he said it in his ancient wizard-like language and tone of voice. He also asked for an invitation to your wedding – which, if you'll remember, you were in the middle of planning before your forever-long detour into the dining room of all places. You left Mom and I alone to plan your wedding? Really? Do you _want_ black drapes and zombie skulls everywhere for décor?"

"Mom would never let something like that happen," Kendra said, rolling her eyes.

"You're right. She'd probably decorate everything with zillions of butterflies. Butterflies here, butterflies there, butterflies everywhere."

"Butterflies?" Bracken asked.

"He's joking," she said. "Just trying to make us think we won't end up with the elegant wedding we want."

"You'd deserve it for leaving everything to other people," Seth said. "I've had enough of this wedding planning stuff, not that any of my suggestions were taken seriously anyway. You two can have fun with the rest of it. Mom's acting like she's on a high; she won't put the magazines or laptop down for anything. Be careful, you might wind up with ten different invitation patterns and a multicolored wedding."

"We haven't left everything up to other people," Kendra said.

"Right. But you haven't made any decisions yet, either."

"Well then, let's go make some," Bracken said, placing his hand on the small of Kendra's back and leading her into the living room. When Seth was out of sight, Bracken kissed Kendra and said, "For the record, I agree with whatever you want."

Kendra rolled her eyes and said, "With that kind of helpful attitude, you're going to have to wear a tacky purple tux with a blue polka dot tie," and proceeded forward to sit on the floor at the coffee table with her mother, who instantly started showing Kendra a hundred different pictures of table settings. This wedding planning thing was going to take _forever_.

"I look good in purple," Bracken grinned as he sat down beside his fiancée.

Everything was falling into place. In a few short months, he would have his life mate to spent eternity with. As he looked at Kendra, her eyebrows furrowed as she consulted over various pictures with her mother, he couldn't think of anything that would make him happier.

* * *

Next chapter will probably be a wedding. ;) Let me know what you thought about this one! A few of you came very close in your guesses about the plant at the end of the last chapter.

I'm estimating 3 or 4 more chapters before this particular story is considered complete. We'll see what happens. Thank you, everyone, for your reviews, favorites and follows. Your support means a lot! :)


	20. Promises

Sorry for the delay! I wanted this chapter to be just right. I wrote it four different ways, and this is the one I think I'll stick with. :)

* * *

**Chapter 20: Promises**

Kendra stood still at the entrance to the white event tent she was standing in, awaiting the appearance of her brother. Her day had been full of surprises so far – the fairies had transformed all of the wedding decorations she and her family had spent hours setting up the day before, the cake had toppled over courtesy of a particularly clumsy satyr (who then insisted he would fix it and gave her a smile that highly suggested he was panicking on the inside), the guest book had seemingly grown legs and walked away, and Kendra's wedding dress had gone through a serious metamorphosis courtesy of the brownies the night before.

The truth was that the issue with the guest book didn't really bother her, the issue with the cake tremendously bothered her, and the fairies and brownies had honestly made marvelous improvements both to the decorations and her dress, which now looked like something she'd picked out of the highly expensive end of a fashion magazine while yet still maintaining the integrity of the originals.

To further the truth a little... the combination of everything she hadn't planned on – good _and_ bad – was rattling her nerves. She'd dissolved into tears earlier that day when her mother had embraced her and told her that her father would be proud of her. That was perhaps a normal reaction for someone to have on their wedding day but Kendra felt like she was a horrifically nervous wreck, which was highly unusual for her.

As she continued to wait for Seth, she idly wondered what time it was. And whether Tanu would be willing to sneak her some artificial courage in the form of a potion. She shook her head at that thought and continued to wonder where on earth her brother had gone and why she was standing all alone on her wedding day. Didn't she have any girl friends or anyone who would wait _with _her?

She sucked in a deep breath right as Seth's voice rang through the tent from outside the entry flap. "Knock, knock. Is there a bride in here?" he asked.

"Seth!" she called out, relief evident in her voice.

"Are you dressed, or should I come back later?" he asked.

"I've been ready for what feels like hours! Don't you dare leave!" she shouted.

He ducked inside with a hesitant expression on his face. "Mom was right, you _are _crazy today," he said.

"I am _not_ crazy!" she protested.

"Right," Seth said. "And I'm a sky giant."

"What took you so long?" Kendra asked, working on calming down a little. She'd promised herself that she _wouldn't _be a bridezilla today, after all.

"I was just helping... rearrange some things," he said.

Kendra raised an eyebrow. Her brother was normally a better liar than that.

"What happened?" she asked pointedly.

"Nothing happened. Are you ready to get this show on the road?" he asked in return.

"Not until you tell me what happened," she responded.

"Just some last-minute interference. No big deal." He held his arm out to her. "Are you ready now?"

"What _kind_ of interference?"

Seth rubbed his temples and said, "Your musician didn't show up. I was running around trying to find a replacement."

"_What?_" she cried.

"It's alright, Bracken took care of it," Seth answered. "Someone owed him a favor."

"This is ridiculous," Kendra said, shaking her head in disbelief. "All of these last-minute changes."

"For what it's worth, your cake looks awesome now," Seth stated. "It was really entertaining to watch Doren run around looking like he was about to face the executioner. I mean it was _hilarious._ He was so freaked out."

"He fixed it? Really?" Kendra asked, disbelief evident in her voice.

"No. The fairies took mercy on him after he'd been running around for an hour or so. But only after he begged and showered them with shameless flattery for most of that time. It probably helped that Bracken asked them to do it after he'd watched Doren panic for a while. Like I said, _hilarious._"

Kendra rolled her eyes. "Well, I'm glad we have a cake again," she said, calming down significantly.

"Tell me about it," Seth responded with a grin. "A wedding without cake? That would be a tragedy."

Unintentionally, Kendra found herself laughing along with her brother after he cracked his classic delivered-the-punchline grin. "You're right, I _am_ crazy," she said. "I think I've felt every emotion on the spectrum today so far. Is it over yet?"

"Nope," Seth replied. "I guess you're just going to have to grin and bear it. Are you ready now?" He held out his arm to Kendra again.

Kendra nodded her head and placed her hand in the crook of his arm, then adjusted her skirt. "Wait," she said as he started to walk forward. "I just remembered. Have you seen my bouquet? It didn't make its way to me yet."

"Oh, right," he said. "Girls can't get married without flowers. My bad. I'll be right back." He let her go and walked out of the tent, returning a few moments later with a drastically different bouquet than what Kendra had seen yesterday. Originally comprised of several simple blue roses, it now also held white calla lilies and long strands of green grass that wove intricately through the flowers. The blue shade of the roses also seemed to be quite a lot brighter and somehow _fuller_ than Kendra recalled.

"Fairies again?" she asked as he handed it to her and she marveled over the masterpiece.

"Nope. Wood nymphs this time."

"I guess this is what I get for getting married at Fablehaven."

"Fairy Princess marries Fairy Prince on a magical preserve and she thinks the magical community wouldn't have any say in the matter?" Seth quirked an eyebrow. "Really? Do you _know_ how stupid that sounds?"

"Touche," Kendra responded, again placing her hand in the crook of his arm.

"I mean, even if you had decided to get married somewhere non-magical, I'm sure you would've been barraged by every surrounding creature of light."

"Point taken," she said, her voice letting off a slightly annoyed tone.

Seth took the hint and as they were about to leave, someone else entered the tent. Kendra drew in a breath as she and Seth both bowed in the presence of the Fairy Queen.

"Please, stand," the Queen said with slight amusement evident in the tone of her voice. "I would like to speak with you briefly before the ceremony, if you don't mind," she stated, looking at Kendra.

"I'll just, uh... go stand outside for a minute," Seth said, again releasing his sister and heading toward the exit.

"Seth, please stay," the Fairy Queen insisted. "I won't keep either of you for long."

Kendra watched as her brother turned and walked back to her side, confusion evident on his face.

The Queen walked toward Kendra and kissed her forehead. "Welcome to our family, Kendra Sorenson," she stated. "You are a bride truly worthy of my son. I hope one day my son will prove that he is a worthy groom for my handmaiden as well."

Seth scoffed, but ceased his laughter as the Queen glanced at him... although he would swear later that there had been a glimmer of joviality in her eyes, too.

Kendra replied to the Queen, "I'm honored that you are here."

"Nonsense," the Queen responded. "_I_ am honored to be here. The King is in attendance as well. I am doubtful that he will understand anything that happens, but I felt it would be worth the effort."

"How is he?" Kendra asked sincerely.

"Steadily improving. There is a veil still over his mind, but he is able to sit and perform simple tasks on his own after someone starts the activity for him. He can not communicate and he doesn't seem to recognize when he is being spoken to, however I didn't want him to miss his son's marriage. But I digress – I wanted to add a touch to today as well. My brothers and sisters have already done much, and their work is beautiful."

Before Kendra could grasp what was happening, the Fairy Queen waved her hand and a shimmery dust fell over Kendra's entire being. Her skin began to glow and her dress and flowers sparkled as though diamonds had been embedded in them. Kendra looked at her arms and dress in awe as Seth uttered a simple and reverent, "Wow."

"And for you, Seth," the Queen began, "I have given this much thought. What does someone of light give to someone of darkness, yet who is simultaneously so full of valor? This situation doesn't present itself very often, as you might imagine."

"You want to give _me_ something?" Seth asked incredulously. "I don't mean to sound disrespectful, but... _Why_?"

"Our families will be intertwined today," she answered. She removed a necklace that she had been wearing and placed it over Seth's head. It was a thin silver chain and interspersed at even segments on the chain were small, clear beads. "Bracken has told me of your adventurous spirit, and I remember your deeds at Zzyzx," she began. "This will help you avoid catastrophe. If you are to follow in the footsteps of your predecessors and travel across the world, you will now be a little safer in your endeavors. This talisman will _not_ grant you invulnerability," she cautioned. "Do not make rash decisions. Approach all situations with wisdom."

Seth bowed his head. "Thank you, Your Majesty," he stated sincerely. His countenance actually reflected humility for once, which Kendra found amusing.

The Fairy Queen smiled and nodded her head. "I will return the King to my realm shortly after the ceremony," she said, returning her attention to Kendra. "I hope you will understand."

"Of course," Kendra responded. "Thank you." With one last smile, the Queen turned and exited the tent.

Silence permeated the area until Seth finally cleared his throat and said, "Well, that was unexpected."

"Yeah," Kendra replied, "No kidding." She looked at her dress again and gushed, "I feel like a princess."

"You look like one," Seth answered. Before Kendra could ask him who he was and what he'd done with her brother, he again held out his arm. "I hear the third time's the charm," he said. "Ready?"

She swallowed her teasing question and instead replied with a simple, "Ready."

Together they exited the tent and walked out into the fresh air. Someone had scattered flower petals over the ground that marked their path toward one of the gazebos at the pond, where Kendra could clearly see Bracken standing in front of several rows of white wooden folding chairs. Her dress shone brilliantly as it caught the sun's rays and she beamed at Bracken who looked like he'd been blown away. Fairies were everywhere and their chatter silenced as they caught sight of her. A huge variety of creatures of light, including several astrids who stood near the Fairy King, littered the areas surrounding the few rows of white chairs. The seated guests stood up in respect as she and her brother drew near. Seth led her to Bracken and before allowing Kendra to pull away, he gave the unicorn a fist bump and grinned. He then quickly embraced his sister and whispered in her ear, "Good luck. Don't mess up your lines; you don't want to look bad in front of all your party crashers," before he turned abruptly and left to stand next to Marla who was already tearing up.

Kendra let out a little nervous laugh at her brother's comment but as she looked up and into Bracken's eyes, her nervousness seemed to melt away. The smile on her face softened and grew, and she could feel her cheeks flushing slightly because of the intensity of his gaze. He seemed to realize he was staring at her and gave her a shy smile as his own face colored a little in embarrassment. Bracken offered his left hand to her, and she grasped it with her right. Together they walked up the steps of the gazebo, then turned so that their bodies faced each other.

"I have never seen a more beautiful sight in my entire life," he said quietly to her.

"I love you," she whispered back. Their guests reclaimed their seats.

He smiled softly, then began their ceremony. "Today, I promise you many things," he stated firmly and clearly so that those in the vicinity could hear. "Your presence brings me strength. You make me want to constantly strive to be my best. I want to hear the sound of your laughter and be greeted with the sight of your smile for the rest of my life." He paused momentarily before he continued. "Today, I promise you friendship. I promise you love. I promise you counsel in difficult times, and comfort at all times."

Kendra placed her bouquet on the side railing of the gazebo, then turned her full attention back to Bracken. He held out his right hand, which held an odd-looking seed, and she grasped his hand in her right one as well, encasing the seed between their palms. His left hand crossed underneath their joined ones, and she met it with her left hand as well.

"I promise you a listening ear," Kendra stated clearly. "I promise you a hand to hold. A warm embrace at the end of each day." Her right palm tickled a little, and the reason was evident a moment later when a sprout popped up between where their hands were joined.

"A tender touch every morning," Bracken said. "A shoulder to help make your burdens lighter. A companion throughout life." The plant started to grow elegant vines with lacy, delicate leaves.

"I promise to cherish you," Kendra spoke. The vines from the plant began to loosely weave themselves around Bracken and Kendra's joined hands.

"I promise to appreciate you," Bracken said.

"I promise to ensure you understand and do not doubt my love for you," Kendra answered.

"My strength is yours."

"My life is yours."

"My allegiance is to you," they both spoke. The vines lengthened and started to snake up and around Bracken and Kendra's arms.

"If ever I fail or shirk my duties, may the vows I have made this day be brought to my remembrance," Bracken said as the vines stopped progressing once they reached his elbow. He repeated what he said in the fairy tongue and Kendra copied him, both in English and in the secret fairy language.

"May the love I feel for you today grow ever more through the end of my days," they both said, first in English and then again in the fairy tongue. The vines around their arms and hands began to glow a warm, greenish hue and ceased all movement.

"May our marriage be a source of peace and contentment for us as we weather the storms of life together, side-by-side, as equal partners," they recited in both languages.

"May your happiness be my constant goal," they finished.

The plant that had coiled around their arms and hands pushed forth a bud from where the seed was still located between them. The bud gradually opened its petals and spread wide in the sunlight – its center was a soft pink with scattered pale yellow spots while the petals themselves were white. Kendra thought it looked similar to tiger lilies she had seen before, but there was something somehow _otherworldly_ about it at the same time. The plant's leaves and vines glowed ever brighter as they took on a shimmery, almost glassy look.

Bracken had told her this would happen. She smiled magnificently at him and he grinned back at her. Turning slightly toward the crowd that had gathered, he addressed their audience.

"To Kendra's family and friends," Bracken began. "This is a highly symbolic and ancient tradition. The plant that joins us represents our bond. It will release its hold momentarily, and we will be considered husband and wife. The flower that has bloomed is representative of our promised future and the joys that are to come. The vines are representative of our intertwining lives."

"Oh, just shut up and kiss her already!" someone called out from the crowd. Kendra thought it was Seth since it sounded like something he would say, but judging by the look of pleased surprise on his face, she was willing to bet it had been one of the satyrs.

"Who needs a history lesson? This is a _wedding_ for crying out loud!" someone else shouted.

Yeah, that definitely had to be Newel and Doren.

Bracken blushed and Kendra started to laugh along with several of their guests. "Well, what are you waiting for?" she teased when he turned back around to look at her.

The plant released its hold on their hands and arms and Bracken pulled it off of them. He placed it on the railing of the gazebo, grinned at Kendra a little wolfishly – her bones felt like they'd turned to mush; he'd never looked at her _that_ way before – and then he pulled her close and kissed her.

Kendra was positive that if he hadn't maintained such a strong hold on her, she would've melted straight into the ground.

Their guests cheered and as he let her go, they heard a voice shout out, "Finally! Now let's get this party started!"

Kendra and Bracken clutched onto each other and laughed as nearly all of the magical creatures suddenly jumped into action and started making all sorts of rambunctious noise. Their human wedding guests appeared to be amazed at the sheer volume of creatures that had attended, let alone the scene they were witnessing. Dryads and hamadryads brought forth bowls of fruit seemingly from out of nowhere while several centaurs carried large baskets of steamed and stewed vegetables and meats. Kendra picked up her bouquet and started to head toward the steps of the gazebo when Bracken picked her up from behind and carried her down the steps bridal-style instead.

"I can't have you leave by yourself today," he teasingly explained as cheerful whoops and hollers erupted from their magical guests. Kendra gave a glorious smile and raised her bouquet to the sky as Bracken carried her over to where his parents were sitting. The reception was already well underway as a group of satyrs began playing pipes and flutes while everyone else either looked on happily or started to dance to the upbeat melodies.

The Queen held the King's hand and smiled gracefully as her son and now daughter-in-law approached. The King's expression was vacant as he gazed into the distance. Bracken placed Kendra on her feet, then grasped her hand and they knelt before his parents.

"Your Majesties," Bracken began, "we would be greatly honored to receive your blessings upon our marriage."

"Of course," the Queen answered, quite obviously pleased with her son. Bracken raised his and Kendra's joined hands and the Queen placed hers and her husband's on top of theirs. As she began to speak, Kendra gasped as her skin glowed. The Queen's blessing was simple and at the conclusion, Kendra was overwhelmed by a sudden intuitive urge. She reclaimed her hand, then stood and walked briefly until she was standing straight before the Fairy King who didn't seem to notice she was there. He didn't seem to notice that _anyone_ was anywhere around him, actually. Placing her hands on the sides of his face, she leaned forward, whispered a few words in the ancient fairy language and kissed his forehead slowly and sweetly. The Queen gasped and Bracken appeared to be dumbfounded – when she pulled herself away from the King, she found his eyes staring intently back at her.

"I know you," he said simply. His voice was hushed and cracked from disuse.

All activity and sound near the royal family ceased. The silence proved contagious as the entire crowd around the pond caught on only seconds later and stopped what they were doing. Kendra was speechless.

"How do I know you?" he asked her.

"We... haven't truly met before," Kendra replied.

"Kendra Sorenson..." he seemed to guess. He sounded very unsure of himself.

"How... how do you know my name?" she asked, glancing sideways where she saw the Queen who had tears flowing freely down her cheeks as she watched their interaction.

"I don't," he said, still speaking softly. "Where are we?"

"We are in a safe place," she answered. "There are people here who you need to see."

"Who...?" he trailed off as Kendra reached out for the Queen's hand. She grabbed hold of Kendra almost desperately and moved forward so that she was without doubt within her husband's line of sight.

Recognition dawned on the King's face immediately. "My Lady," he stated. "Why are you upset?"

Kendra retreated slightly and turned toward her now-husband, who was still kneeling on the ground and had also been reduced to tears. "We've been married for less than an hour and you've already given my family the most wonderful, unbelievable gift you could have ever given," he said as he stood up and pulled her toward him. "How did you know to do that? How could you _possibly_ have known?" he asked as he embraced her.

"I... I didn't," Kendra answered. "I don't understand what just happened. We were kneeling, and I just felt... _pulled_. I... I don't know how to explain it."

"Kendra Sorenson," the tearful Fairy Queen spoke up, "I am forever in your debt." She laughed and cried at the same time as she stated loudly to everyone who was listening, "Let all who have ears to hear know that today marks the return of the King!" She then kissed the side of Kendra's face and softly repeated, "I am _forever_ in your debt."

Kendra was stunned to see all of the fairies in the visible vicinity also with tears running down their faces. After a minute or two had passed, happy, joyous laughter began to ripple through everyone as the gravity of this new reality was made apparent – the King was alive and seemingly well and, to top it off, there was a wedding to celebrate! The satyrs picked up their instruments again and began to play with an entirely new vigor. Little woodland elves danced merrily and before Kendra knew it, Bracken had tugged her along and caused her to dance as well.

* * *

Hours later, long after night had fallen and much food and drink had been had by all, Kendra and Bracken slowly swayed side to side to the soft tones of a popular modern love song as sung by a duo of wood nymphs. Kendra guessed that they'd heard it from Newel and Doren's television set. She honestly preferred their version.

"So much for having a small wedding," she mumbled softly against Bracken's chest.

He chuckled in response. "I don't think a small wedding would have ever been possible."

"Yeah, Seth kind of knocked that into my head earlier. I guess I didn't really think it all through."

"Do you wish it had gone differently?" he asked.

"Not a chance," she said cheerfully. "Who would have ever guessed our wedding day would turn out like _this_?"

"I don't think anyone did," he answered. "And yet, here we are. This has been the best day of my life, and I've lived for quite a long time." He stopped swaying to the music and pulled away from Kendra enough so that he could see her face. "I don't even have words to explain to you the depth of my feelings."

She chose to respond by kissing him. When they pulled apart, she teased, "So how does it feel to be Mister Kendra Sorenson?"

He laughed and replied, "I'm assuming about the same as it feels to be Missus Bracken."

"Nope, it's not the same," she said. "You have no last name. I guess by default that means that you get to inherit mine."

"Bracken Sorenson," he tried out, seemingly mulling it over. "That's not too bad."

Kendra burst into laughter. "I was joking," she said.

"So was I," he replied. "I think I'll stick with just 'Bracken.'"

"Well, 'just Bracken,'" she said, "I think our party is coming to an end."

"I believe you're right," he agreed, scooping her off of her feet once more and walking toward the entrance of the pond. The creatures and human guests who were still present – which was quite a large number – applauded the couple as they made their way toward the exit. Kendra couldn't have been happier with how the day had progressed; almost nothing had gone according to plan, but everything had turned out beyond anything she could have imagined. And now, as she and Bracken made their way toward her car to drive away, she was filled with excitement at the possibilities the future held for them. Promises had been made – sincere promises, witnessed by everyone they cared about and then some – and she was determined to see them through.

* * *

The fluff. :)

I hope this chapter didn't disappoint. There was so much I wanted to jam into this one, but I just couldn't put it all in and still make it flow right. I will probably post a separate one-shot or two at another point that will detail at least a bridal shower.

I have to send a shout out to FairyKam, who drew the picture that she's allowed me to make the cover photo for this story. Does anyone recognize the scene? :) Try the chapter titled "Sushi." I absolutely love this drawing!

Thank you to everyone once again for your readings, favorites, follows and reviews. Hugs to all of you!


	21. Always

For record-keeping's sake... Kendra is about 24 in this chapter, and she and Bracken have been married for 3 years.

This chapter is shorter, but it's meant to be an epilogue.

Jack's mannerisms were inspired by my own toddlers. ;)

* * *

**Chapter 21: Always**

"Warren Burgess!" Vanessa growled. "_Why _is Jack covered in mud!?"

"I like worms," Jack stated gleefully, holding one out to his mother. "Want one?" he asked.

Vanessa grimaced. "Er… No, honey. Mommy doesn't want to get dirty right now," she explained.

"Sorry," Warren said, shrugging his shoulders. "The kid likes mud. What can I say? It's not like we're going anywhere. Let him have some fun."

The narcoblix looked at her son with regret on her face. "I _just_ bought that outfit for him…" she said.

"It's okay, Mom. We'll wash it," Jack insisted, prompting Kendra to laugh. She could only imagine how many times he'd heard his parents say that to him.

"You're just so _cute_!" Kendra grinned. "Hands down, my favorite two-and-a-half-year-old on the planet."

Jack scrunched up his face in a funny smile which he directed at Kendra, then laughed.

"If he's so cute, do _you_ want be the one to give him a bath?" Warren asked.

"Sure," Kendra replied quickly.

"Wait… seriously?" he asked again, apparently not expecting that particular response.

"Of course! Actually, why don't you and Vanessa go out for the night? I can babysit. You hardly ever go on dates anymore."

Warren and Vanessa looked at each other before Vanessa asked, "You're really sure you don't mind?"

"Does the huge smile on my face make you think I'm lying or something? Go on. I've got this little munchkin covered. I wanted to spend some time with him anyway." Kendra plopped herself on the ground near Jack, but she steered clear of the mud puddle the toddler was happily jumping and splashing in and instead opted for a dry patch of earth.

"You play with me?!" Jack practically squealed with delight.

"Wow, Kendra. Really? You want to watch him?" Warren and Vanessa both still looked dumbfounded.

"You guys are acting like he's a monster or something. Should I be worried?" Kendra teased as she picked up a few small rocks and tossed them into the mud puddle Jack was enthralled with.

"No, he's fine, I just thought you might want to have the evening with – "

Kendra waved her hand nonchalantly and glanced at her husband, who was standing on the deck talking to her Grandma Larsen. They looked like they were wrapping up their conversation. "We don't _have_ kids yet, so every night has the potential to be date night. It's not a problem, really. Go have some fun!"

Her husband and grandmother ceased talking and Bracken approached his wife while smiling at the energetic toddler. "We're taking Jack for the evening, huh?" he asked cheerfully as he watched the boy abandon his puddle and start to chase a fairy that had curiously approached the child. "There's a new dessert café in the city. Across from the crab shack on the waterfront – you should try it out! It looks good; I've been meaning to take Kendra for a couple of weeks now."

Vanessa eyed Bracken with slight distrust and the relaxed atmosphere between the adults suddenly tensed slightly. Kendra stood back up and Warren placed a hand on her upper arm with the clear sentiment behind the action being an instruction to listen and not interfere.

"I swear on my life that your son will come to no harm," Bracken said calmly and quietly, clearly directing his comment to Vanessa. "Do you believe me?"

Kendra and Warren stayed quiet and waited for Vanessa's response with baited breath. Ever since Seth's quest from the Singing Sisters, the unicorn and the narcoblix appeared to have formed a truce. They no longer argued, overlooked each other's shortcomings, and had voluntarily held light conversations with each other several times in recent history.

"I believe you," Vanessa replied and nodded her head after only a moment's hesitation.

Kendra and Warren exchanged shocked expressions and to add to their surprise, Vanessa actually continued her train of thought with a verbal "Thank you," directed at Bracken, who also nodded his head graciously in response.

Warren looked at the ground and frowned, then said, "That's funny; I could've _sworn_ that Hell just froze over, but the ground isn't even a little bit frosty."

"Hell? Daddy, what's Hell?" Jack's sweet voice piped up.

"Warren!" Vanessa snapped, looking greatly displeased.

"Um…" Warren began, obviously caught off-guard by his son's interruption. "Sheesh, it figures you'd catch _that_ word out of everything I said…"

Jack stared up at Warren with a highly confused look on his face.

"Hey, little buddy," Bracken chimed in, kneeling in front of the toddler in order to offer a distraction, "I think your Aunt Kendra wants to play hide-and-seek. Right, Aunt Kendra?" he asked, peering up at his wife with a playful gleam in his eyes. She loved it when he looked at her like that.

"Absolutely!" Kendra cheerfully responded. "I'll count, alright? You guys go hide."

"Hide-and-seek! Yeah!" Jack shouted exuberantly. He jumped up and down a few times for extra emphasis, prompting all of the adults to laugh.

Bracken picked Jack up after a moment and ran across the yard with the giggling boy to scope out a good hiding spot. "What time do you want us back by?" Warren asked Kendra as his child and friend rounded a corner and tried to disappear from view.

"I don't care. Once Jack is in bed, Bracken and I will probably just watch a movie or find a board game to play until you get home."

"Excellent. We'll be home before two then—"

"He means ten-thirty," Vanessa interrupted. "At least one of us has to be able to get up in the morning with that little early riser," she said, gesturing to the toddler who was unsuccessfully avoiding detection from his parents and Aunt Kendra.

"You're not counting!" Jack shouted once he realized Kendra was staring right at him.

"Yeah, Aunt Kendra! Come on!" Bracken also shouted teasingly.

Kendra rolled her eyes lightheartedly and maintained her smile. "Alright! I'll start counting!" she turned her back to them and told Vanessa and Warren, "Go on. Have a good time. We'll call you if we need you; don't worry about him."

With one last affectionate glance at their son, Vanessa and Warren seized the moment and fled the scene.

* * *

"What time is it?" Kendra asked, straining her eyes to look at the clock that was located on the wall furthest away from her.

"Almost ten," Bracken replied, pulling a container of ice cream out of the freezer. "They said ten-thirty, right?"

Kendra nodded her head. "They needed a break. I could see it in their faces."

"Hopefully they've enjoyed their night off," Bracken replied, approaching her with the dessert and a couple of spoons. "I know I have."

"That's not ours," Kendra said, quirking an eyebrow at her husband and pointing to the carton he held.

Bracken shrugged. "We gave them a free night out. I think they can spare some ice cream. Besides, there's not a whole lot left in here anyway."

"Taking something without asking first, though? That doesn't sound like you," Kendra said as she accepted one of the spoons he offered to her.

"I've apparently decided to turn over a new leaf." He sat down on the couch next to her and put the carton between them. Kendra peered inside and noticed he was right; there were maybe two scoops left in it. She figured Vanessa and Warren wouldn't care and decided to take a bite.

They sat in comfortable silence for a minute or two when Kendra put her spoon down and placed her hand on his knee.

"What's up?" he asked her curiously.

"Bracken, I've been thinking…" Kendra trailed off, biting her lip nervously.

"You're not breaking up with me, are you?" he teased when she failed to continue speaking. She laughed.

"No, no," she responded. "I've just… I…"

He moved the carton of ice cream to the coffee table in front of them and then gave her his full attention. "You can tell me anything," he reassured her.

"I know," she said. Then, after taking a deep breath, she announced, "I want a baby."

Bracken smiled. "What, you thought I was going to object?"

"You're not?"

"Not a chance."

Kendra's facial expression relaxed as she said, "I thought you'd say something like, 'we have eternity together and children will come at some point in the next million or two years. Why would you want to rush that?'"

"I don't sound like that, do I?" he asked with his eyebrows raised.

"You've been known to let your age show at times."

"Well… I will have to work on that, then."

Kendra sat back and analyzed him. He appeared to be perfectly contented with their conversation and, quite frankly, it baffled her.

"You're looking at me funny," he remarked after a moment. Kendra blinked her eyes and stopped staring at him. "What are you thinking about now?"

"I was so sure that you'd want to wait longer before having a baby," she answered.

Bracken scooped her up in a warm embrace and said, "I've met and married the woman who matches my heart. Why would I want to deny her something that would only increase the amount of love between us?"

They sat like that for a while, with the side of Kendra's face resting on Bracken's shoulder, when she started laughing softly.

Bracken pulled away from her and looked at her questioningly, and Kendra's grin only widened. "You were so cute with Jack today," she said. "That kid is a keeper. He's so funny – and you two were acting like partners in crime."

"Well, I _do_ enjoy children," he responded. Then a soft smile graced his features as he said, "But my favorite part of tonight was watching you tuck him into bed. He adores you. Seeing how you interacted with him… Kendra, you will be an excellent mother."

"You'll be an even better father," she replied.

She laughed as Bracken rolled his eyes at her. "I don't think I've ever seen you do that before!" she cried.

"Apparently you're rubbing off on me," Bracken answered, shrugging his shoulders. "I think I will love you forever."

"Well I hope so," she said. "You kind of did promise me that a few years ago, and in a very huge way."

"That I did, and I'd do it again without hesitation."

"I love you," she told him, grasping one of his hands in hers and lacing their fingers together.

"And I love you," he responded, kissing her forehead. "Forever and always."

* * *

The end! Thank you to everyone who has read, followed, favorited and reviewed this story. I'm astounded at how well this one has done!

I am in the process of writing a sequel. I had wanted to go more Seth-centric, but the idea that came to my mind will still be mainly centered around Kendra – however, Seth _will_ play a much larger role. Stay tuned! It will probably be a while before I start posting that story, so just be aware that there will be a gap.

Thanks again!


End file.
